


Berk Ink

by Caliope



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Cute dorky eventual boyfriends with tattoos awww, Has anybody done this yet?, I Don't Even Know, If so I'm sorry, Kinda PN!AU?, M/M, Mildly underage?, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, PN!AU, PNAU, fuck yeah, tattoo!AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-02-26 21:44:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2667422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caliope/pseuds/Caliope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack tries to get a tattoo done with a false ID and gets totally caught, but Hiccup is nice enough to offer him a job in his parlor instead of calling his father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo this is my first hijack/frostcup fic and I hope you like it! This idea has been stuck on my head for quite some time and I don't really know how the thing will develop.
> 
> Please notice that English is not my first language and so there could be a lot of mistakes, sorry for that! And if you're like suuuuper nice and would be kind enough of being my beta, it would be really appreciated, thanks!
> 
> And one last thing: kudos are free and make me really happy :) 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> \- Caliope.

Jack fidgets nervously, playing with the hem of his blue jumper in front of the crystal door. He catches his bottom lip between his teeth and looks up at the neon letters above the shop ("Berk Ink") with a trembling breath. He palms his wallet through the denim fabric of his jeans, where the drawing, the money and his false ID card are tugged carefully inside, and for a moment he feels like he's totally sure of what he's doing. He remembers North's words and his knuckles go white with angriness.

Jack is an average seventeen boy: he has good grades in school, he doesn't do drugs and he usually keeps himself away from the trouble. He has recently dyed his hair white and sometimes his father must tell him to lower the music when he's in his room, but excepting that, he's a pretty normal teenager. And that's precisely why he doesn't understand why North wouldn't let him have a tattoo for his birthday.

And so he finds himself in front of the best of the three tattoo shops in Berk, the tiny town where it snows half of the year and he lives in, doubting like a fucking three years old whether he should enter and get this done or not.

He finally lets out a last nervous sigh and pushes the door open with the best smile he can put right now. The entrance of the tattoo studio is mostly white and smells of disinfectant an something metallic; he can hear the light buzz of a machine somewhere in the back and for a moment he wants to run through the door.

He also hears a voice, and he looks at the man at the counter that's addressing him with a mix of amusement and curious concern in his green eyes.

"Sorry, what?"

"I was asking if I can help you with something?" He tries to keep his voice steady, but Jack can appreciate a bit of a laugh under his soft tone.

He has electric blue hair styled in short, wavy spikes, and Jack stares amazed for a second at his tattooed arms; a bunch of beautifully detailed and colored figures decorating slightly bulking muscles. He's intimidating, but that doesn't stop Jack from taking the creased paper from his jeans' pocket and handing it to the other man with a hopeful amiable smile.

"Oh", he seems surprised for a second, and Jack's cheeks turn red, "it's very cool mate. I'm Aster, but everybody calls me Bunny". The man offers his hand over the counter still looking at the design and Jack catches it a little more sure of himself. "Did you draw it?"

"Um, yes." He looks mildly proud at his drawing: the head of an artic wolf, with piercing eyes blue as the night sky.

"You wanted it done, yes?" He's still appreciating the design, not really paying Jack that much attention while he tries to soften the creases on the paper.

"In my back, yes. At that exact size." Jack turns more and more sure of himself as seconds pass by, and this time he offers a satisfied grin that shows all of his pearly white teeth, but the smile only lasts until Aster –Bunny, he reminds himself– asks for his ID.

He takes the card from his black leather wallet and hands it to him, trying to appear calm. It's an old ID from his father, one in which he's like twenty years old and he's remarkably more skinny than now, and Jack honestly thinks they look really alike.

Aster doesn't, though, or so it seems as his gaze jumps between Jack and the photography with a dubious glance. Jack's smile falters a bit and his palms become sweaty. Aster clears his throat a bit. "So, your name is North Frost?" Jack barely nods and gulps lightly. "Um, okay, wait a minute here," his voice comes doubtful but Jack says nothing. "Hey, Hiccup!"

Aster leaves the counter with his ID and the design in hand and disappears through a curtain leaving Jack planted there with his heart beating in his ears at a madly pace. He notices absently that the buzzing of the unidentified machine has stopped and he's so nervous he wants to throw up.

Suddenly another man enters the room through the curtain that Aster has just passed, and he's the most beautiful thing Jack has ever seen in his whole and short life: messy chestnut hair, almost reddish, long to the chin with two beaded braids peaking next to his right ear; gorgeous forest green eyes with dark lashes; thin, lightly chapped lips; freckled and soft-looking creamy skin; and best of all, a long arm covered in black tattoos, geometrical designs mostly, and what looks like some kind of arms-shield with a fanged face on it.

Jack sucks on some air and he's sure he must be looking pretty dumb right now with his wide framed glasses, his stupid-two-sizes-bigger-Christmas-sweater and, on top of that, an open mouth in a perfect 'O', but he just feels so lightheaded right now he doesn't really care.

But when he looks at his face again, he has his brow furrowed and doesn't seem very happy. Uh-oh.

"So, North Frost?" Jack would have been delighted by his also hot, mildly rough voice if it wasn't because he seemed fucking angry at him for some reason. He was more intimidating than Aster and he wasn't half as muscled as the other man.

Jack simply nods, because he knows if he tries to speak he will say something stupid. Their eyes connect for a minute and Jack notices how the other man's expression softens little by little. "Look kiddo, this ID is okay, but I know you're not North Frost." Jack tries to speak then, but the other boy lifts a hand and he shuts his mouth. "My father is the Police Chief; I know your father, so I don't think we have to call him to verify this, right?" Jack eyes grow bigger in fear as he nods negatively as fast as he can, and the other boy sighs –in pity? Defeat?– and soon enough he's throwing himself over the counter. "What is this? Your father says you can't get a tattoo, you steal him an old ID and try to do it on your own? Believe me, you're not the first one, and it's never a good idea."

Jack bits his bottom lip and moves his gaze to his feet. He's so ashamed of being caught that he really wants to cry, but he holds his tears back. "I'm sorry", he trembles a little and takes a huge breath before continuing, "I-I'm turning eighteen in two months and I wanted a tattoo for my birthday but my father wouldn't hear a thing about it, and I was just so angry that..."

"Hey, calm down kiddo, it's not like I'm not gonna call your parents or something", the other man offers him a soft smile.

"B-but, you said your father-"

"Exactly, my father", he laughs and points at himself. "Do I look like a policeman?" Jack moves his head negatively and the other man laughs again, but he looks at him intently. "Look kiddo, I'm sorry if I scared you, but if I tattooed a minor without his tutors' permission I would have quite a bunch of problems," he points with his thumb at a sign that reads 'Under Age Policy' and Jack doesn't know what to say. "The design is pretty neat, though".

He says it holding his drawing and Jack feels all the blood in his body flooding to his cheeks suddenly. 'Um, th-thank you."

"Do you take classes?" Jack shakes his head once. "What do you do, do you go to school?"

"High-school, in fact," the other man chuckles at his huffed expression but nods appreciatively.

"Okay kiddo, you have two options here," he speaks in a hush over the counter and Jack approaches him curiously. His green eyes scan his face briefly and he offers a lopsided smile, "first, you can take your drawing, exit that door and try to get you tattoo done at the two other shops in this town with probably the same result as here, or..."

"Or...?"

"Or, you could work here."

Jack shots a disbelieving face at him. Then, he seems surprised. Then, his smile is as huge and bright as the moon that can be seen through the crystal door of the tattoo shop. "Seriously?"

"Do you think I offer this kind of thing to everyone that crosses that door?" He hands him the drawing back and blinks a green eye at him. "You're very talented. I'm good with geometrical designs and Aster with coloring, but you have a totally different style. I like it, and it would be nice to have someone to help us with the shop."

"Yes", he shouts too excitedly and the other man laughs, "I-I would love to. It would be amazing" he whispers embarrassedly this time, but a goofy smile is still plastered in his pale face.

"God kiddo, you're such a dork," he ruffles his white hair and Jack is too happy to take the comment to heart. "Okay, this is what we'll do: you can come tomorrow after your classes at school and Aster and I will explain you a pair of things. Then you can start."

"That sounds great, th-thank you for everything."

"But you have to promise something to me first," he seems very serious about whatever he's going to say, so Jack tries to look as confident as possible. "You won't try to get any other tattoo done before you're old enough. Deal?"

Jack looks at his offering hand over the counter, the freckled skin and strong tattooed fingers seeming inviting and even too good to be true, but he takes his hand firmly with his own pale own and gives it a dry shake. "Deal."

The guy looks at him almost proudly and gives him another warm smile, and Jack takes that as his cue to leave. He puts the still creased paper inside his jeans and makes it for the door, stopping in his tracks in the last second and turning his head to the man still over the counter. "Sorry boss, what's your name?"

A mischievous smile blooms over the freckled boy's face and Jack feels his mouth go dry. "Everybody calls me Hiccup."

"I'm Jack", he says nervously and opens the door. "See you tomorrow then, Hiccup."

"See you tomorrow, Jackie."

When Jack arrives at home twenty minutes later, he takes the steps two at a time and throws himself on his bed to cry out his excitement in his pillow while his father cooks dinner downstairs.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for stopping by and read this story! Please leave some feedback if you like it! :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> \- Caliope.

Jack running through Berk's high-school main doors when classes are finished isn't an unusual sight, but today he looks more eager than what would be considered "normal".

From Jack's "personal hell" (as he likes to call it) to the tattoo shop there're like fifteen minutes by foot, but Jack arrives in barely five minutes with a pounding heart and a furious blush in his pale cheeks only to find the door closed and the lights out. He stands in front of the shop trying to catch his breath back when the loud sound of a motor startles him and he looks behind his shoulder.

Parking a black, sleek motorcycle is a man, his face covered by a hard helmet. The stranger waves at him and Jack just stands there perplexed, but he almost faints when the driver takes his helmet off and the features of a very happy and smiley Hiccup –his fucking boss, for God's sake– are revealed.

Hiccup turns himself to look at the motorcycle for a few seconds and Jack can't keep himself from staring at the rough leather jacket and the skinny dark jeans that Hiccup's wearing. Jack decides that they suit him perfectly, and when his eyes roam to his butt and Hiccup turns again about to catch him staring he tries to keep his face as steady and serious as possible.

Hiccup doesn't seem to realize that Jack is a fucking seventeen years old pervert and just approach him with the shop keys tingling in his left hand. "I'm sorry frostbite, have you been waiting for long?"

Jack opens his mouth and closes it and then opens it again like a breathless fish, too focused on the fact that Hiccup –again, his fucking hot boss– has just nicknamed him. He mumbles a negative response and follows the other man inside, Hiccup turning the lights on and passing through the curtain that Jack saw the other day.

He doubts at first, not sure if he should follow him, but after that he peeks his head and enters the cozy and medium-lighted room; wine walls and wood floors that contain soft-looking carpets covering the center of the room; two barber-shop leather seats and next to each one tall wooden stools; a huge mirror that hides the wall at Jack's right; a large collection of vinyl discs next to a player and rather big speakers; and scattered around the room a selection of mismatched objects: music and movies' posters, an old skateboard, a coffee-pot, a fridge... And there, over a table (Jack notices that it's as long as the mirror, and therefore, the wall) a lot of tiny and pointy metallic machines and the beautiful inks that Hiccup and Aster used to do the tattoos.

Jack comes closer to them and takes a seat in one of the barber chairs, spinning a little to look himself in the mirror, and he can't help to grow excited at the thought of being seated there in a few months for really getting his first tattoo. Hiccup just stares at him with an amused smile in his freckled face and takes his jacket off.

He turns the lights on completely and Jack jumps off his seat blushing madly. Hiccup arches a brow at him in an involuntary flirting gesture from his position next to the vinyl collection, and when he turns his green gaze to them Jack approaches him.

Hiccup is searching for a certain record while Jack reads the names that the other man flicks with his hands. Most of them are from bands he hadn't ever heard about and their paper covers are crumpled or creased, so Jack is sort of relived when Hiccup finally squeaks with a delighted sound holding a vinyl from The Rolling Stones, the one with the cake in the cover.

"Okay kiddo, this is going to be your first lesson in this business: music is important. Very important, in fact." He hands Jack the vinyl and the teen furrows his brow with a confused pout that makes Hiccup want to ruffle his white hair; instead, he turns to the player. "You see, a tattoo is a piece of art, one that stays firmly placed in your skin. It doesn't have to be good; it has to be beautiful or amazing, depending on the client's desires." He had turned the player on while he rambled and now is looking at Jack's piercing baby blues intently. "So, what does an artist needs in order create art?"

Jack suddenly feels like he's doing a very difficult math test. Hiccup takes the record from his hands and puts it in the player, and realization slaps Jack with the beginning notes of the first song. "Music?"

Jack's blush increases when Hiccup smirks deliciously at him and pushes his glasses up his pale nose with a pointy finger. "Inspiration."

Too soon the intimacy is broken by Aster's loud entrance. "Ahh, the 'Lesson in music'." He hugs Jack's thin shoulders cocking an eyebrow at Hiccup. "Is this guy annoying ya mate?"

*

Jack learnt a lot on the first few days at the shop.

Hiccup and Aster (Jack discovered later that the blue-haired man was indeed the owner of the shop, while the freckled one just worked there in the afternoon, going to college in the morning) had a few and fairly logical rules that Jack should follow blindly if he was to keep his new-found job: he shouldn't attend to clients, touch the tattooing equipment or basically be left alone in the shop.

That implied that Aster or –mostly– Hiccup had to be around Jack constantly, almost always blowing at his neck, and sometimes it made Jack go nuts or feel like they were treating him like a child. Jack didn't appreciated being seen like a kid, more when he was trying to catch Hiccup's attention, sadly without any positive result until now.

Of course, the freckled man would sit with Jack and watch him design different things, complimenting the snow-haired teen when he did something well, or let him sit in Aster's stool next to his own when he was tattooing some client, or discover him new bands using his vinyl collection, or even teach him how to use one of the tattooing machines (the easiest, though) over a piece of plastic when Aster wasn't watching them... But while Hiccup did all those things, he would ruffle Jack's hair or put a hand on his shoulder like an older brother would do, unlike Aster, that did it in a matey way.

Jack wasn't a kid anymore; he didn't need any tutoring or whatever Hiccup was doing. Instead, he wanted other things from the man: things that he didn't know Hiccup wanted and Jack didn't know how to get. He didn't think that the tactics used by main characters in cheesy movies would help him to get Hiccup's attention, and he wasn't experienced in anything. He was still a lip-virgin at his seventeen years old, and it wasn't something that worried Jack that much, or at least it wasn't until he met his fucking hot boss and he woke up almost every morning with a raging boner.

Moreover, Jack's sexual tension was affecting him in more ways than one: his usually calmed personality was slowly turning into a snapping little shit. Jack was utterly unimpressed by this.

Which carries us to the present moment, in which Jack enters the door to the tattoo studio with a bloody nose and a broken bottom lip.

"Holy shit show pony!"

Jack looks at Aster's surprised expression with a bored glare and just pulls his ruined jumper over his head, tugging slightly at his hurt nose and earning himself a yelp.

"What happened to you?" Hiccup approaches Jack at Aster's shout and takes his cheeks in his rough, big hands. He inspects the teen's bruised face with a concerned expression that makes Jack huff in annoyance. The green-eyed man guides him to one of the barber seats and sits him down. Hiccup tries to take Jack's face in his hands again but the teen just slaps them away. "Hey, don't be mad at me!" He scolds the boy and Jack wants to say sorry, but he doesn't.

"I'm not a fucking child, stop that!"

"Well, you're being pretty childish now!"

Jack grits his teeth and braces himself tightly at Hiccup's harsh words, and the other man regrets them almost instantly. Aster arrives with a first-aid kit and a towel, and Hiccup starts to clean Jack's blood from his nose even as the teen doesn't stop fidgeting.

The doorbell rings a minute later and Aster excuses himself with a grunt, leaving Hiccup holding Jack down with one hand and cleaning his lip with the other.

Jack goes very still when the other man touches his lip with his fingers for a few moments, and he flinches under the pressure making Hiccup release him with a concerned glance.

"Maybe it's going to need stitches."

"I don't think so", Jack rolls up his shoulders and sighs a trembling breath.

Hiccup lowers himself to his level kneeling on one leg, and he takes a cotton dab and wets it in antiseptic before starting to clean Jack's face more thoroughly. Jack seems embarrassed, but he stays quiet and lets him do the job. When Hiccup puts the dab over his lip though, Jack yelps in pain and he takes Hiccup by his arm, digging his nails unconsciously in the freckled skin creating half moons.

Jack mumbles a weak sorry under his breath and Hiccup locks their gazes together. "Are you going to tell me, then?"

"There's really nothing to tell", and there really wasn't. Well, mostly: Jack wasn't the most nerdy student or the designated bullies' punching-sack in his school, but from time to time he was picked at for being different (having your hair dyed and glasses seemed to be a forbidden combination, he didn't even knew), and today was one of those days.

Jack was leaving the high-school's grounds at an angry pace with his headphones on, thinking about the cold shower that he had had to take that morning in order to calm his dick down and the shitty day that followed after that, when he bumped into Pitch's chest, one of the school's bullies, and Jack was so fucking angry at the world in general that soon enough they were making a bloody mess of each other's faces.

"Are you having problems with someone?"

Jack quirks an eyebrow at Hiccup in an expression that shows how much he doesn't want to have this conversation. "I thought you said you weren't a policeman?" Hiccup smiles sweetly at this and suddenly Jack regrets the last twenty minutes, so he softens his tense face and offers Hiccup a pained shy smile.

The other man moves to the fridge and takes a can of soda and a beer, and he hands Jack the first of the two drinks in some kind of mute peace offering. "I'm just worried about you."

Jack shrugs trying to hide the sudden warm on his cheeks, and he looks at Hiccup over the rim of the can. He is resting his weight on the table and drinking his beer with practiced easiness, and Jack's gaze moves to the tattoos covering his left hand flexing around the bottle.

Jack's blush reaches his ears when he thoughts of how much he would like to suck at Hiccup's fingers.

"I know you're not a child", Hiccup's serious voice startles him, but the viridian eyes are focused on some point behind Jack's head. "And I know that we had only known each other for a few weeks, but you can always count on me."

Jack simply nods, too surprised –and thankful– at his words to say something, and a mischievous smirk tugs at his thin lips. “Dude, you're such a softie!”

Hiccup touches his nose playfully and Jack groans in pain a little, but the other man doesn't take any pity on him. “Don't play with my feelings frostbite, stop being a cunt.”

Jack blushes at the swearing and stands up, not being able to answer him. Hiccup laughs loudly at this and Jack's huffs nervously. "Hey," he says it nonchalantly , “would you give me a sip?"

“Not until you're at least eighteen”, he winks a green eye at his pout and laughs again, “I know you are not a kid, but you aren't an adult yet."

Jack just groans completely frustrated and squeezes his baby blues hard.

 

*

The door to the shop closes after Jack's shout of a goodbye and Hiccup sighs a little in the smile that is dancing quietly on his lips.

However, the smile disappears and it's replaced for a frown and a playful glare when Aster starts to make smooching noises from his place over the counter. "Jack and Hiccup, sitting under a tree- Ouch man!"

Hiccup rolls his eyes —he didn't punch him that hard— but Aster keeps snorting and throwing him knowing looks.

"What?"

"What!?" Aster has the decency of looking actually surprised, "It's so obvious that you're smitten with him that I can't believe he hasn't gone running to your father saying that you're a perv."

Hiccup's shoulders hunch and he doesn't want to look like a kicked puppy, but he does anyway, and Aster pats his arm in a comforting way. "Sorry mate, I was joking ", he smiles encouragingly at him, "I think he's pretty interested in you, if how much he blushes around you is something to tell."

"That's not the problem", he picks at his nails instead of looking at Aster's face, ''he's too young man, he isn't even eighteen; and he's so cute and sweet and I can't stop imagining the moment in which I meet his parents and they look at a fucking limp twenty-one tattooed man with his son and God, picture it Aster, it would be disastrous in so many ways-"

"Calm down, will you?" Aster looks at him with a mix of sympathy and you're fucking crazy man in his eyes. "You're rambling and thinking about the worst possible scenario."

"The worst possible scenario is the one in which they report me for raping his son-"

"Okay, stop that shit right now", Aster seems positively angry now, and he takes the freckled man by his arms to make him look at him directly, "listen; you're a good, intelligent, caring guy, not just a fucking limp tattooed dude; and if there's people out there that can't see that, they can be damned." Hiccup opens his mouth as if to answer him, but Aster is having none of that. "I'm sure Jack sees it."

"I don't really know", Hiccup shrugs defeated.

"Well, you better know it soon, because your stupid game of soppy smiles and lingering looks is making me nauseous", the man expects the blow this time and he doesn't flinch; instead, he laughs heartily and pats Hiccup's shoulder. "Seriously man, go for it."

The freckled man bites his bottom lip doubtful, but he finally nods his head and sighs. "Yeah, I think I'll do."

Aster smirks confident at him and after a few minutes he's leaving the shop as well, leaving Hiccup in the backside finishing some designs.

He's almost finishing the last sketch (a girl entered the shop that morning with a very specific idea in mind: the silhouette of a swallow in a geometrical way, all simple lines) when he notices a bundle of blue cloth on the floor and he lifts it revealing Jack's stained jumper. Hiccup caress the soft material with his rough hands and sighs longingly. He decides to wash it at home with his own ruined t-shirt and give it back later.

Hiccup thinks of Jack's blue eyes that afternoon, obscured by fury and shame, and how he had only wanted to turn them into the shy but happy ones that he usually carried around. He thinks of the small body fidgeting in pain while he cleaned his wounds and of the softness of his lips under his fingers and Hiccup exhales sharply through his nose. The dark eyelashes, the tiniest bit of freckles over his little nose, the soft white locks of his hair —he couldn't help ruffling it, being able to feel the strands through his fingers—, the amazed look that he pulled unconsciously when he watched raptly how Hiccup sketched or tattooed someone, how he listened to Hiccup's every word when he was trying to teach him something, how he smiled at him and bit his bottom lip when he was embarrassed...

Suddenly Hiccup covers his face with his two hands and groans, a little too happy bulge making his pants tighter.

He is so screwed up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody! Sorry for the wait and the *possible* mistakes in this chapter! 
> 
> I haven't had much time to write/check this chapter because I have started my finals and I'm a bit busy and stressed. Also I wanted to participate on this month's hijack week but I have too many exams and I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do it *ugly sobs sound in the distance*
> 
> Before you read, a few notes:
> 
> 1\. As you may have noticed, on the first chapter Hiccup was the "confident" character and Jack the "shy" character, but as the chapters'll go on they'll experiment some changes in their behaviors. I like to think that characters aren't flat; they have to exit their comfort zones (always respecting their essence, of course). 
> 
> 2\. Pitch "the bully" is in fact Mr. Kozmotis 'Pitchiner' Black's son (I don't even know, I really like Pitch).
> 
> 3\. This chapter is all about getting to know the boys better, sorry! (Again, characters aren't flat)
> 
> Anyway, thank you so much for all your lovely comments and kudos! I hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know your thoughts!
> 
> \- Caliope.

Valka takes the clean clothes from the drying machine and starts folding them with care, huffing a little when she founds some coins in one of Hiccup's jeans pockets. She's about to go an scold her son, but then she stops in her tracks as she sees a foreign piece of blue clothing. She pulls it out from the mess of tangled clothing to discover a soft heavy jumper, too small to be Hiccup's, less say Stoick's...

Hiccup is in his room fresh from his morning shower and looking through his wardrobe for something to wear when his mother enters the space with a questioning look and Jack's jumper in her tiny thin hands. She just has to lift a perfectly designed brow to have Hiccup talking.

"It's from a friend", he shrugs his shoulders in an attempt to appear calm, but Valka, as any other mother, knows her son too well for his own good.

"Which friend?" She inspects the jumper more closely now, relishing a little in the nervous expression of her son. Oh, she loves to be mischievous from time to time. "Let me see... It's too small to be from Aster's, and he would never wear such a cute thing," she tries to hide her smile as Hiccup's ears warm under her examination, "it could be from Astrid's, but it's from a boy's brand, so..." She smiles brightly at him, more a smirk than anything, and Hiccup groans in defeat. "You have something to tell me, sweetheart?"

Hiccup takes the jumper from his mother's hands, noticing along the way that the blood stains are gone, and he scratches the back of his neck sheepishly. He tells her all the story: from how Jack tried to get a tattoo with a false ID to how Hiccup cleaned his wounds last afternoon, and Valka knows just from the softness of the voice in her son's rambling that he adores the kid.

Valka smiles with all her teeth and hugs Hiccup's cheeks with her hands, tucking some stray strands of chestnut hair behind his ear. "So, we should be expecting Jack for Christmas' dinner?" Hiccup shakes his head and Valka's grin falls, being replaced for a concerned brow. "You haven't asked him yet?"

"He's too young mom." Hiccup states simply, looking at a place between his mother's head and the wall behind her, and Valka huffs and shakes a hand.

"What's the matter in that? Your father and I are five years apart!"

"Yeah mom, but he won't be eighteen until December, and even after that we will be three years apart, and considering my looks..."

Valka furrows her brow with that ferocity that characterizes her when she's not being a tender mom, and she pinches one of Hiccup's ears, consciously ignoring the 'Ouch!' that her son yelps. "Looks doesn't matter, honey." She holds his gaze intently and Hiccup feels like he's five years old and has scrapped his knees again. He remembers her same words, in this same room, when he left the hospital for the first time after the car accident that took his leg, and it hurts somehow. "You're amazing, and I'm not saying it because you're my son", she kisses his forehead and smiles encouragingly at him, "he'll love you for who you are."

Hiccup exhales a ragged sigh and hugs Valka lightly, nodding his head.

She simply points at the jumper in Hiccup's hands and winks playfully. "Now, you should give that back, or your future boyfriend will think you're a creep."

Valka leaves the room in a fleet after that, her son shouting his indignation behind her.

 

*

 

The following Monday Jack didn't show up to the shop, and neither he did on today.

How much he refused it, Hiccup could feel an uneasiness in his guts upon seeing the blue jumper where it stood folded in the table of the studio, and he finally decides to leave the shop a little earlier than usual and go to Jack's house to check on him.

He calls to the police station and Mrs. Brennan kindly gives him the address after asking him about every kind of nonsense that crossed her mind and having Hiccup answer her with all the niceness that he could muster.

Some people would tell that Hiccup was a rebel or a troublemaker judging by how he dressed and the huge tattoos in his body, but he was in fact a quite charming boy. He had his flaws when he was younger, but being the Police Chief's son and being recognized by all the inhabitants of the tiny town since he was born was sometimes very tiresome. In a place like Berk, children usually follow in their parent's footsteps, and although Hiccup knew from a very young age that people would expect him to continue with Stoick's place, to be his 'heir', he really didn't liked the idea.

Sometimes it seemed like some kind of betrayal, but it was clear from the beginning that the 'Haddock boy' was interested in other things: machines. How to build them and how they functioned. Mechanics. Hiccup was a brilliant student in his high-school years, and when he revealed that he wanted to take the grading in civil engineering in the neighboring city's university, his parents didn't had any saying in it actually. Stoick was a bit disappointed at first, but he saw his son so determined, such a passion in his explanation, that he couldn't refuse his wishes.

Valka was thrilled; moreover, his baby wouldn't have to leave the nest so soon. Hiccup went to classes in the mornings and worked at the shop in the evenings, being that way able to stay at home instead of sharing one of the dorms or flats at the campus, and helping with the university's fees with his salary. He usually studied at night, and it was an exhausting way of living, but Hiccup was tireless and very happy with it.

The freckled boy lights the engine of his motorbike and the roaring fills his body with warm. Valka had been completely horrified when she saw Stoick's last Christmas' present for his son, but she laughs heartily now as she remembers how Hiccup snatched the keys from his father's hands and left in it still in his pajamas. He came back two hours later and gave Stoick an asphyxiating hug, which was very funny considering both men's size difference.

It's mid-November in Berk and the night air is chilly and unpleasant against Hiccup's skin, so he closes his leather jacket completely and puts on the helmet securely before letting the light of street lamps flow behind him.

 

*

 

Jack is at the desk in his bedroom trying to concentrate in an exercise from his math book.

After Friday's fight with Pitch and arriving home from the shop, North was waiting for him in the kitchen. He was sipping a cup of coffee angrily when Jack entered the room, and he asked him to sit down, which Jack complied. Jack had been grounded very few times in his almost eighteen years of life, but it always started in the kitchen. So he sat down and waited for North to start yelling at him.

Of course, the school called home and principal Black, Pitch's father, told North about the "aggressive" and "distant" attitude of his usually "calm" and "brilliant" son, and how Jack had "attacked" Pitch and broken his nose. The white haired boy couldn't believe his ears, and he indignantly tried to explain himself (shouting, not the best move), but North was having nothing of it.

Jack's blood froze when North asked where he had been that afternoon. He hadn't told his father about his job at the tattoo studio, mainly because he knew that North would freak out and forbid him from coming back; he kept his mouth painfully shut, and after a tense minute his father stated that he was grounded ("I'll take you to school and pick you up when classes are finished everyday") and ordered him to his room.

Jack had been sad during the weekend, but when Morning afternoon arrived and North and him passed by the tattoo shop in their way home he felt positively miserable.

He groans and closes the book with a huff and a glare at the innocent cover. He turns to look through his room's window —his only distraction, he couldn't even watch tv or use his phone or Internet—, and he gasps when he notices a familiar figure parking a black bike in front of his house and omg what the hell is he doing here-

He yanks his room's door open and runs downstairs hopping that North is still in his studio and hadn't heard the bell ringing because if so he's totally fucked.

He opens the white door and exits the house, pushing Hiccup in the process until their chests are flushed together in the porch. He lifts his gaze and locks it with Hiccup's green and relieved one.

"What are you doing here!?" He hisses the words a bit more harshly than what he intended, and suddenly he realizes that he's not wearing any shoes and his feet are freezing.

Hiccup pouts a little and scratches the back of his neck, and it should be illegal how cute and hot he looks at the same time in Jack's porch with his tight leather jacket and dark jeans and oh how much he has missed him. "I'm sorry, but", he offers a little bag and Jack takes it surprised, "you left your jumper at the shop the other day. It was satined and I took it to wash it, and I really wanted to give it back yesterday but you didn't come, so..." Jack sees how he takes a deep breath and plays with one of the braids in his hair. He wants to play with them too. "Are you sick? You had me a bit worried."

Jack blinks twice, dumbfounded for a tiny moment, and then shakes his head with a shy smile while his mind is about to explode from thinking of Hiccup in his door. "I'm grounded."

"Oh", the freckled teen chooses that exact moment to chew on his bottom lip and Jack gasps under a breath, hopping that he didn't noticed.

"High-school called on Friday", he shrugs a shoulder and holds onto the jumper more tightly, "my father was very pissed, and... Well, he didn't know about the job, so..."

"What!?" Jack is the one that flinches this time at Hiccup's hissed words. "You must tell your father, I mean, I don't want you to have problems with him because of this!"

"If I tell him he'll never let me go back!"

"You don't know that Jack." Hiccup's statement sounds oddly distant, like somehow he was remembering something, and Jack wants to ask about it but it doesn't seem appropriate.

"Please", Jack's voice comes out pleadingly as he hides his face in Hiccup's torso, and the older boy wants to simultaneously hold him close and push him away. "I love working at the shop and spending time with you and Aster. You are very nice to me. Please."

The door creaks open at that moment and North's massive figure is there, staring at them astounded. Jack can feel his burning gaze in his nape and he lets go of his grip on Hiccup's waist as fast as he can, while the freckled male looks positively about to become a red light.

North coughs an uncomfortable sound and Jack bites the tip of his tongue hard. "Who's your friend, Jack?"

Hiccup watches as Jack's face loses it's already little color, and before the teen can say a word, he holds his hand out with a nervous smile. "Hayden Haddock, sir, Chief's Haddock son."

Like somebody cast a spell on North, the large man's angry frown suddenly softens, and his gruff of a voice comes out a little less intimidating. "The Haddock boy, yeah", he gives Hiccup a firm handshake and a dry nod, "how's you father?"

"Very well, thank you."

And that's it. The conversation stops there and the three men stand on the Frost's porch with a  
tension so dense you could cut it with a knife.

North places a heavy hand on Jack's shoulders and the teenager hunches them a little. "And mind you tell me what are you doing here, Hayden?"

Hiccup notices North's quick glance at Jack's jumper still in his hands, but he doesn't say a word about it, nor does he when the large man's eyes focus on the braids in his hair. Oh, wait until he sees the rest. "In fact, Mr. Frost, I'd like to speak with you about Jack."

Jack's body goes rigid in a second and North's steady features seem surprised at the petition, but soon enough the three men are entering the house.

Before Jack goes upstairs and the other men to the kitchen, Hiccup winks a green eye at him when his father isn't looking, a crooked smile making Jack's chest a little lighter.

 

*

 

Jack hears how Hiccup leaves the street in his bike, and shortly after his father's heavy footsteps on the stairs and towards his room.

He has left the door open in an attempt to listen to the conversation downstairs, so when North finally appears he's facing him sitting in his bed. The huge man comes closer, taking a seat next to him in the soft surface and for a plain minute just staring at Jack, who for his own part fidgets under his father's scrutiny.

"I am on the naughty list?"

North glares angrily at him, but then his expression relaxes and he sighs heavily through his nose. "I'm disappointed, Jack." He has to recognize it: those three words hurt. A lot. Even more if they are accompanied by his father's sad look. "Not only you didn't trust me enough to tell me about how you were spending your afternoons, but neither with who."

Jack sucks in a trembling breath and lets his white hair fall in front of his face to try and hide his shame. "I'm sorry, dad."

"He's a good lad, you know", he says it casually, and Jack doesn't know how to proceed at that statement, so he keeps his mouth shut. "Really smart guy. Hardworking, also. His family has always been; and it's very modest..." Jack glances at him clueless of where this chat is supposed to go, and North huffs and holds his gaze firmly. "You're still grounded, but," Jack holds a breath and looks at North's finger pointing at him, "you can work at the shop after classes if your grades aren't affected by it."

North is abruptly pushed back as Jack's arms round his neck in a death grip, a bunch of 'thanks dad you're the best dad ever' excitedly giggled in his beard, and he lets a tiny smile tug at his lips. However, his face turns serious again when he takes Jack by the shoulder to speak. "No more secrets, Jack. I love you, and I will always want you to be happy."

"Promise." The blue eyes boy nods once with a solemn expression so unlikely in him that North wants to laugh. Maybe having the punk around would be good for his son.

He pats Jack's back and shakes his head. "By the way, you have good taste."

North actually laughs this time at his son's furious blush.

 

*

 

On Wednesday evening Jack was gifting the world with a perfectly white smile when he entered the tattoo studio.

Aster greets him warmly and they speak briefly before a tiny girl not much older than Jack, with her hair colored like a rainbow, arrives and grins widely at Aster. Jack takes that at his cue to leave the pair talking at the counter.

Jack hears Hiccup's laugh over the music when he approaches the curtain and as a result his smile grows bigger. He wanted to thank him for whatever he told North last evening and find a way to return the favor. Maybe he could make gingerbread cookies that weekend and bring some to the studio next Monday, or buy him a vinyl for his collection, or draw him something, or-

Jack stands frozen in the spot. Sitting on the barber seat at Hiccup's post is a beautiful girl —blonde hair tucked in a loose braid, with piercing light blue eyes and a tiny nose—, Hiccup hovering over her with one of the tattoo machines in his left hand, and the upper half of her body is naked.

(Well, in fact, her nipples are hidden under wide stripes of black duct tape, but Jack hasn't ever seen a naked woman until this fucking moment and he is freaking out a bit).

Jack squeezes his eyes shut hard and starts crying apologies until he hears Hiccup and the strange girl laughing like crazy, and then her humorous voice saying "Aww Hic, you talked about him, but you didn't say that he was such a cutie!"

Jack wants to faint and hit his head. Like, really hard.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I spent today's afternoon finishing this chapter because I was feeling a bit guilty for not posting until Wednesday (I couldn't concentrate on my notes anyways, finals are a bitch).
> 
> So, mentions of Aster&Tooth and Astrid&Merida (how's is this ship called? Merstrid? Is there even a ship for this? Don't mind me, I'm stupid), so I'm thinking of maybe adding these pairings to the story's information, although they're not really that important... I don't know.
> 
> I'm not completely happy with this chapter, so sorry for the more than probably appearing of grammar mistakes and general nonsense.
> 
> Thank you so much for your kudos, comments and simple hits, and I hope you enjoy this crap of a chapter. Also Happy Holidays! Christmas, yay!
> 
> -Caliope.

The girl in question is Astrid, Hiccup's friend since childhood, and as she states, "The first person Hic" —Jack wouldn't admit he was a little jealous at her calling him that— "ever tattooed" —as well as he wouldn't admit being a bit jealous at that, either—.

Her smug smile changes to a friendly and inviting one, and she approaches Jack with wide open arms, still naked from the waist up, to hug him tightly. "Hiccup have talked so much about you!" She's a little taller than him, so he hunches a bit to look into his eyes. "You are probably the most adorable thing I have ever seen!"

Jack gulps his embarrassment and fights the trembling anxiousness that fills his body. He tries to look calm and not say something stupid, but it's a difficult task when you're being hugged by a naked woman. "Th-thanks, uh...", he pushes his glasses higher on his nose, "you're ve-very beautiful and y-you smell ni-nice". He groans. He did it anyways.

Astrid smiles brightly at the rather weird compliment and pinches one of his cheeks. "Are you always this shy?" All of a sudden, she glances down at her duct tape covered chest and laughs a little. "Oh, sorry! I'm making you nervous?"

Jack stutters something incoherently, and suddenly Hiccup's strong tattooed arm is over his shoulders, holding him close and making Jack blush furiously and tremble even more violently. "Forgive Astrid, Jack, she doesn't have any manners."

His voice leaves his mouth slightly strangled, and Astrid glances a knowing look at his friend's rigid posture and gritted teeth. Hiccup's fucking jealous and Astrid is having a lot of fun with it. "Well, this cutie here does have some. And he's right: I do smell very nice."

Jack covers his face with his hands, about to die from embarrassment. He turns in his position and hides himself further in Hiccups arms, nuzzling his chest lightly. "I-I'm sorry". Hiccup's hand holds him closer and caresses his back, debating between thanking Astrid for practically shoving Jack into his arms or murdering her for making the little boy so uncomfortable.

Astrid smirks, enjoying the whole situation, and she ruffles his soft white hair. "No problem darling; Hiccup's friends are my friends".

Hiccup wants to bark at the suggestive tone, and further at the ruffling. He doesn't understand why Astrid is being so tiresome with the whole situation, moreover when she's seeing how angry is making him... And then it hits him.

Astrid is trying to make him jealous, the little son of a bitch.

They had been talking about Jack before the boy entered the room that evening. Astrid studied at the same university as Hiccup, but both were so busy that they didn't see each other as much as they would like it, so Astrid has decided to 'visit' him at the shop that afteroon (and getting a free tattoo, by the way). Unlike Hiccup, Astrid lived in a flat near the campus with her girlfriend Merida, so she was going to stay the weekend in Berk to spend some quality time with her family before her finals started.

Hiccup had told her about Jack periodically when the two friends chatted on the phone almost everyday; but today, and as they were seeing each other face to face, Astrid wanted 'details' (she had said the word in a dirty voice that had made Hiccup laugh). Of course, Hiccup didn't have many 'details' to share, because —as he told Astrid later over the buzz of the tattooing machine— he wanted to wait until Jack was eighteen before making a move on the boy.

Astrid had been impatient to meet the kid that had his friend so head over heels. Hiccup had always been a boy focused on his studies and quite obsessed with his mechanics and dragons and fantasy things; so he haven't had many crushes, less say relationships, making Astrid really curious about what the fuss was about with little Jack.

There was a time when Hiccup and her were like eighteen in which Hic didn't knew which was his orientation, and he decided to resolve it by hitting on random people at bars and having a few one-night-stands. It was a bad idea, but Astrid was also confused at that time, and like that the two of them played along Hiccup's plan for some time; until Astrid met Merida, and the two girls shared more than a quick fuck. Three years later, she was happily living with her girlfriend while Hiccup was still single, and although it wasn't a bad thing, Astrid felt a little guilty about it.

But now, seeing the cutie pie that was his best friend's crush and how Hic hugged him in his arms in a protective grip, she couldn't help but smile huge.

"Why don't I finish your thing so you can put on some clothes and then we can talk like civilized people?"

Astrid winks mischievously at Hic's annoyed face, but nods her head anyways. "Okay!"

Hiccup waits until she's seated before separating a nervous Jack from his body and looking down at him intently. "Are you okay?"

Jack nods briefly and bites his lip tightly in an attempt to relax himself a bit. "I'm sorry", he gives Hiccup a pleading look and whispers the words with an ashamed undertone. "It's the first time I've ever seen a... A woman like that", he spats the words this time, "and I sort of freaked out. God, I'm so stupid..."

Hiccup takes his cheeks in his rough hands lightly and shakes his head. "It's okay, don't worry", he hesitates a bit, but finally he kisses the boy softly on the forehead. "Draw something on Aster's post while I finish Astrid's tattoo, okay?"

Jack gasps when he feels Hiccup's lips on his forehead, but he nods with shining eyes and an unsure yet happier smile. "Okay."

Hiccup guides him to Aster's point and then turns to see Astrid's knowing look and smug smirk. He mouthes 'I will kill you' to not startle Jack, and she giggles under her breath.

Hiccup can intimidate a lot of people, but Astrid isn't one of them.

 

*

 

"And you'd have seen the poor guy's face, he was terrified!" Aster snorts and takes a sip of his drink.

"Well, Astrid's face is terrifying!" Astrid punches Hiccup really hard on the shoulder and the brunette pouts, making Jack laugh hysterically.

Hiccup and Aster have finished with today's clients, so now the four of them are talking at the back of the studio with some beers (well, Jack's drinking a coke, under Hiccup's insistence and Astrid's comment of 'Hic, stop being so boring!' ).

After Astrid put on some clothes and she stopped teasing the poor boy, Jack got to know her, and he understood perfectly why Hiccup and her had been friends for so long: both shared a complicity only gained with years of confidence and experiences together. They seemed more siblings than friends, and it was clear how much they adored each other. Astrid was probably the best friend Hiccup could ever wish for, and Jack was very happy at being able to see how relaxed Hiccup behaved around the blonde girl.

The group doesn't hear the ring of the door under their loud chatter, and like that a redheaded with wild hair steps into the room and approaches them with a good humored huff. "Oh, so you're here having fun with your friends while your girlfriend is waiting for you at the door, uh? Not good, Astrid."

Astrid moves from her place at Aster's stool and embraces the redheaded's neck, pecking her lips softly. Jack realizes almost instantly that she has a strong Scottish accent, just like Aster's Aussie one. "I'm so sorry Mer! Time flies!"

"I expected better from you, young lady", she pulls at Astrid's braid jokingly and waves an arm at Hiccup and Aster. Suddenly, her eyes focus on Jack's figure, and the teen feels a little uneasy. "Who's the nerd?"

Jack gasps indignantly and Astrid slaps her girlfriend's arm. "Merida, don't be rude! He's Hiccup's friend, he's-"

"My name is Jack", he cuts Astrid and gives a furious look at the redhead, "and I know what yours is, but maybe I should call you 'nasty lumberjack' by your looks."

"Hey!" She comes dangerously close at him with her fist raised, "If you want me to break your little snow fairy nose you just have to ask kid!"

Jack is about to answer her when Hiccup puts him behind his back and glances murderously at the Scottish girl, who's being grabbed at the same time by a mortified Astrid. "First you insult him, and then you threaten him?" Merida backs up a little at Hiccup's words, but still looks defiantly at the taller boy. " I think Jack deserves an apology, Merida."

"No way!" She jumps at Hiccup's statement an spats her words. "It's his problem if he takes so seriously other people's comments!"

Jack casts an incredulous look at the girl and shakes his head, not believing what he's hearing. He takes his backpack from the floor next to his feet and leaves his can on the table. "I should've going."

Before anybody can move he's running through the curtain and making it for the shop's door. Outside it's cold, and he puts on his coat while he walks as fast as he can. He fumbles with the buttons on the front and finally leaves them, too focused on his own anger to try anymore.

Jack hears someone calling his name in the distance, but he keeps walking. He can't believe how he has just been treated, like he was some kind of wreck that doesn't deserve a minimum of respect like everyone else just for how he looks... Tears burn at the edges of his eyes, but Jack holds them back with and angry bite at his bottom lip as he hurries his pace up. He used to think that older people usually were more mature, and therefore less judgmental, but that girl showed him how wrong he was. He just stood there and made a fool of himself...

All of a sudden Jack's body is embraced tightly from behind and he sucks in a surprised breath. He tries to shove the other person, kicking and scratching, until he's going to bite down the stranger's arm only to see a bunch of familiar tattoos mere centimeters from his face.

His breathing slows a bit, although his heart is still beating like crazy, and he turns his face slightly in his flesh cage. Hiccup is also catching his breath, but he's looking back at Jack's baby blues with a relieved expression. "God, you're fast", his voice comes ragged and Jack forgets for a moment how angry he is.

"Nah, you're too slow", he can't help the pun, and Hiccup squeezes him tighter, making him gasp.  
The two of them stay like that for another minute, steading their beatings and silently enjoying each other's warm in the cold street, until Hiccup sighs. "Don't mind Merida", Jack looks up from Hiccup's arm to his viridian eyes, but says nothing; "she's a rough girl, in every sense of the word. When we first met we almost killed each other over the table we were seated at in a cafe, I still don't know how Astrid calmed us."

Hiccup tries to sound funny, but deep in Jack's upset eyes there's hurt. "Is just... I don't understand, you know?" The boy's gaze turns back to his shoes and he plays with his fingers anxiously. "Aster, and you, and even Astrid... You accepted me so fast I didn't remember that for me that's an unusual thing." Jack is proud of how calm his voice sounds, but Hiccup's face falls at the revelation. He moves the boy still in his arms until they can see their faces and takes him by the shoulders. Jack looks confused at him, and he blushes when Hiccup inspects his features slowly, drinking his embarrassed expression. "What?"

Hiccup straightens them both and looks at him seriously. "We accepted you because we like you, Jack." He takes his cheeks in his big hands and Jack tries to hold his gaze, but it's difficult considering how close their faces are and how good Hiccup smells and how sure his gorgeous voice leaves his lips and how warm his breath is against Jack's cold nose. "Don't ever let people tell you if you're are or not are good enough. You're perfectly fine just the way you are."

Jack can feel his eyes wetting and he wants to kiss him. He has never wanted anything so hard in his whole life as he wants to kiss Hiccup right now. Jack holds his hands in Hiccup's green t-shirt softly and his head feels like swimming in a pool of steamy and sweet water. The older boy braces his arms around his narrow waist and pulls him closer. Jack looks into viridian eyes with half-lidded ones and closes them slowly. He can tell how Hiccup's moving his face lower and how heavy his beating is compared to his own, his heart hitting furiously against the bone walls of his ribcage, and he can taste the beer in the brunette's breath even before their lips get to touch, and he's so close, so fucking close-

"Hic, Jack!"

Jack opens his eyes and it's like waking up from the best dream he had ever had before knowing how it ends.

Hiccup distances their bodies and look sheepishly at him, a furious blush covering his freckles cheekbones. Jack pouts and the taller boy kisses his forehead quickly in some kind of consolation prize that does nothing to console Jack.

Astrid approaches them in a few running steps, then takes a moment to catch his breath. She looks at Jack apologetically and braces herself, probably a little uncomfortable about the situation. "Please forgive Merida, Jack", she sighs before continuing, "I'm sure she didn't want to be like that. She has a big mouth and sometimes gives the wrong first impression."

Jack glances at Hiccup's unsure face, remembering his prior words about the redheaded. Maybe he could just forget about this, treat it as a misunderstanding, but it doesn't feel right. So he breaths deeply and smiles a little at the blonde girl. "I'm sorry, Astrid, but you're not the one who should be apologizing. You did nothing wrong." Jack looks softly at her, because it's really not her fault, but he's still angry at her girlfriend's rude comment and can't accept the apology.

Astrid seems to understand this, because she bites her lip and nods in consideration. "You're right", she stares at him for a second, and then an idea crosses her mind. She claps her hands once excitedly, and Hiccup simply knows from experience that she's just about to ramble about some horrible plan. "You know, Jack, we're going to have a party in our flat on Saturday next week, just a few friends-"

"Astrid, don't even think about it-"

"It will be like a little reunion-"

"Astrid, no-"

"We'll play some games and there'll be food ad drinks-"

"Astrid, NO-"

"And we'll have a really good time!" Astrid ends her speech with a cheerful tone, but looks at Hiccup positively murderous, while the other teen reciprocates the gesture with a frustrated growl. "Would you like to come? It'd be perfect, Merida and you could start fresh and get to know each other better!" She smiles brightly at him. "Please?"

"Uh, I don't know Astrid..." Jack'd love to go to a college party, it would be super cool, but there's some doubt scratching at the back of his head at the assumption of seeing the redheaded girl again.

"I don't think it's a good idea", Hiccup states and crosses his arms with a bitter look.

"Why not?"

"Because Hic is a boring old man", Astrid mocks the older teen and tries again her strategy. "C'mon Jack, we'll all be there!"

The white haired teen bites his lip and looks at Astrid hopeful puppy eyes, finally giving up with a groan. "I'll have to ask my dad first, but sure, I'll go."

"Yes!" Astrid punches his shoulder hard, making him yelp, and then hugs him in a death grip. "Okay, so if you need anything ask Hiccup for my number, I have to go like super fast, Merida is waiting for me at the studio," she jumps a little to ruffle Hiccup's hair and waves a hurried goodbye. "Until next Saturday!"

Jack sees her go with a curious glance as Hiccup seems pretty annoyed with her blonde friend. They stay there, avoiding their gazes as much as possible, and when the situation grows ridiculously awkward Jack clears his throat a little to catch the freckled teen's attention. "I should be going home, it's kinda late."

Hiccup smiles a bit shyly at him, but his voice is sure and warm. "Do you want me to carry you home?"

"No, really, it's okay," Jack refuses the offer, even though he'd dreamt about riding in Hiccup's bike countless of times; "you have your bike parked in front of the shop, and I can walk, it's not that long."

Hiccup's brows come closer as he frowns, but he nods anyways. "Okay. So, see you tomorrow?"

Jack bites his bottom lip and nods as well. "Yeah."

The two stand on the spot after bid farewells at each other, not really wanting to go, but neither finding a good excuse to stay there. Hiccup smiles a crooked grin at Jack and the teen answers it with one of his own.

The younger boy releases his lip and inhales sharply, before crossing the two steps separating them in a beat and pecking the older one in the cheek.

Hiccup stares at him dumbstruck for a moment, and before being able to say something Jack's already running home, with now invisible burning cheekbones and an excited gleam in his blue eyes.

The freckled boy stands there for a minute longer, and he can't help touching the place where Jack's lips caressed his skin mere seconds ago.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is life?????
> 
> Sorry this took so long! My finals are going well but I've had a very busy week, and I'm gonna have a busier one, so sorry for the posting date, the probable grammar mistakes and the shitty writing! Yay!
> 
> I'm not sure if I'll be able to post the next chapter until next weekend, because I won't probably be able to write anything this week, and if I'd do I wanted to participle on Hijack's week (even if it is with short drabbles, I don't know, what do you think?) so I tried to compensate this fact with the longest chapter ever written (well, it's only 9 pages long, but help me a little here friends). 
> 
> Also, a little bit of spam: I recently changed my tumblr account because my previous one was a complete disaster, so if you're nice or want to follow this story on tumblr, my new account is caliope-wasnt-a-muse.tumblr.com
> 
> As always, thank you so much for your kudos, comments, bookmarks and hits! Hope you enjoy this chapter!
> 
> -Caliope

Jack huffs audibly while fumbling with a grey jumper, and when he finally frees himself from the cotton trap, he throws the offending piece of clothing to the ground of his bedroom and glares at it.

He wants to sit down on his bed and pull at his hair, totally frustrated with himself. Instead, he walks for the seventh time to his wardrobe, looking for something to wear to the party at Astrid's house. Is Saturday evening, and after taking a shower and giving up on his poor attempt to style his white hair, he has spent a good hour in his bedroom trying to find something cool to put on —without result, he might add—.

He goes downstairs and sure enough, North is sitting in his armchair in the living room, the muffed sound of a radio filling the space with ambient music while he reads a thick book, probably one of those historical novels he likes so much. He seems too absorbed on it, so Jack approaches him from the door and clears his throat to catch his attention.

North looks upward clearly surprised, and then his brows scrunch together in confusion. "Why aren't you dressed yet? I thought you were leaving in half an hour."

Surprisingly, his father ungrounded him that Thursday, after Jack subtly commented that Hiccup and his friends were throwing a party at the neighboring city, that was just at a mere ten minutes by car. Jack had a math exam last Friday, his worst subject, so when Hiccup offered tutoring him Jack wasn't very hopeful, neither was North. But when he presented to his father on Thursday the paper with a big and very clear number eight written in red pen, to say that North was pleased was an understatement.

Jack never had many friends, and North admitted that sometimes it was due to his own overprotectiveness. After losing Jack's mom at his birth, North's heart grew sour, and the first months of his new single parenthood were dark. But, as he realized later one night, with Jack crying his lungs out in the man's bed and not stopping until North dared to hug the little bundle in his much bigger frame, the boy wasn't what took his beloved wife away, but her last gift: the greatest way to remember her. After that night, North dedicated his life entirely to take care of his baby, and many years later that promise still pumped in his veins with the strength of that night.

The man was still a little insecure about letting his son leave the nest, but Jack would be eighteen soon, and even though it hurt to think about it, he wasn't going to stay a child forever. Luckily, North was slowly growing fond of the older boy. Hiccup seemed a fine lad, regardless of how fiery or unappealing his looks resulted to him... and as weeks passed by, he was surer and surer of how good Hiccup was for his son.

Jack bites his bottom lip out of habit, a gesture he does when he's worried, or angry, or stressed, or sad, and North can't decide which one of those feelings is tormenting the white haired teen. "Um, I have a little problem."

At North's lack of response, just a lift of a brow to indicate that he should keep talking, Jack huffs and crosses his arms before his chest. "I have nothing to wear", he admits, and North looks more confused than before.

"Do you want to go shopping, or..?"

"No, no", Jack refuses with a shake of his head and pouts a little. "Just, could you help me to choose something?" Jack doubts a little at first, but then says nonchalantly —but obviously concerned to North— "Astrid told me it was going to be a very small party, but they'll be all older, and I don't wanna wear a stupid jumper and bowtie and have everybody asking me how old I am, so..."

North decides to avoid the fact that Jack loves those 'stupid jumpers and bowties', getting up from his armchair instead. He ruffles his son hair lovingly and looks at him with intent. "I don't think Hiccup or any other of your friends has any problem with you wearing what you usually do."

Jack listens and nods softly, disentangling his arms and moving his hands in a carefree gesture. "I just wanna wear something more stylish, that's all."

North takes a last glance at Jack's slightly furrowed face and pats his back, heading upstairs, and idea in mind.

*

Jack looks in wonderment as his father comes back barely two minutes later with the biggest chest he has ever seen.

Norths leaves the heavy thing on the floor and opens it with a proud smile. Jack stands in the spot, a little dumbfounded, but then he comes closer to the container and there, carefully folded and neatly kept in plastic covers, there are clothes. Jack takes the closest packet and opens it revealing a leather jacket, maybe a bit big for his thin frame, but super cool nonetheless, and he stares at his father in confusion.

"These are clothes from when I was a bit older than you, I think around twenty-something", he explains, taking another packet and freeing a battered and comfy looking light jean jacket, "your mother loved these pieces and put them away in the attic, even if she knew I would never be able to wear these ever again." Jack looks at his father's longing features and guiltiness sting at his heart. North smiles at him, cheering the suddenly sad environment, and hands the jean jacket to Jack. "I suppose she meant to keep them for you."

Jack returns the smile, however a little self conscious, and tries the jacket over the simple Star Wars poster t-shirt he's wearing, one of the few clothing pieces . The material feels soft and heavy against his shoulders, and Norths hums in appreciation when Jack spins over himself once. "So, how do I look?"

His father hums again, but this time in concentration, before messing his white spiked hair and adjusting his glasses over his nose, a funny expression in his beardy face. "There you are, a cool kid."

Jack smiles wider this time.

*

When North leaves Jack in front of Astrid's flat is only after warning him about alcohol and drugs, which Jack doesn't appreciate, but let him do it nonetheless hoping it would make his father a little calmer about the situation.

"How will you come back home?"

Jack unbuckles the seatbelt while talking, mild annoyance in his face. "I told you; Hiccup will give me a lift later, stop worrying."

North nods. "Okay; but if he drinks or something happens you can call me and I'll come pick you two up, understood?"

Jack knew that tonight was his father's turn to do the neighborhood watch (the whole affair started after a poor girl was assaulted by three men two months ago and all Berk's population was quite focused on helping the police department to catch them); North would probably be awake driving in his car all night, which meant that he would probably spend all Sunday morning sleeping as well.  
The teen opens his side's door and exits the car, giving a last glance at his father, accompanied by a calm smile. "Chill out, everything'll be alright. See you in the morning!"

He has arrived fifteen minutes late, but everything is silent. Jack searches in his phone the text that Astrid sent him with her address, and he passes multiple doors until he eventually finds the right one. An uneasy feeling pools in his stomach when he vaguely notices that there's isn't a sound to be hear yet, and he takes a deep breath before finally ringing the doorbell and waiting in the spot.

When the door opens it does with a blast of deafening music, and Astrid is looking at him with a huge smile in her face. She tugs at one of his sleeves and pulls him inside of the dark home.

"You could make it! That's great!" Jack is startled in her tight hug for a moment, but he tries to correspond the gesture. Astrid separates them and holds him there, taking a good and obvious analytic eye at him, a knowing smirk adorning her face after it.

"What?" He asks it embarrassed; maybe he looked ridiculous, or he should have dressed in his usual clothes after all...

Astrid seems to notice this, for she actually laughs out loud and punches him friendly in the arm. "Don't worry; I was just thinking that I like your jacket. It suits you."

Jack has the bravery of looking smug at her comment, and he tugs the neck of the jacket upwards. "Thank you, it's vintage."

"Of course", she laughs harder at his mockery and takes his hand. "C'mon, let's get you something to drink and then you can meet some people!"

Jack goes with the flow, knowing better than to deny Astrid something, and as the blonde girl carries him around the flat he stares at the quite strange environment: there's a lot of people, much more than Jack thought, and most of them are drinking from red plastic cups and chatting loudly in order to be heard over the deafening music (indie-rock, but he's not really sure) that pours from the huge speakers positioned in the living room. Said room is opened to the kitchen, the two spaces barely separated by a counter, and the yellow lights of the kitchen make the dim illumination of the other room even darker.

Astrid enters them both in the kitchen and opens the fridge eagerly. There are mostly bottles of different kinds of beer and some types of soda for the hardest alcohol, which rests in colored bottles with names that Jack has only heard in movies on top of the counter, next to the plastic cups, bowls filled with sweets and some pizza boxes. She takes one of the beers and uncaps it, handing the teen the bottle and then tugging him again, this time to the living room.

Jack feels how his previous sureness slips between his fingers when Astrid approaches a large group of people. They are gathered around a sofa, some of them sitting and some of them standing up, and everybody looks at him when Astrid shouts to catch their attention and introduces him. "Everybody, this is Jack!" A flicker of acknowledgement shows up on some of their faces while Jack waves the hand that isn't holding his beer awkwardly. "Jack, these are Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Tooth", Astrid singsongs as she points at each of the group's members, who reciprocate the greeting, "and of course you already know Aster and Merida!"

Jack breathes visibly more relaxed when Aster peeks his head from behind the girl called Tooth, and the other man beams at him. "Hey there show-pony!"

"Hi to everyone", his voice comes muffled by the music, but the other fierce looking boys and girls seem to hear him, for they respond with funny smiles at the teen's obvious nervousness.

"So, Jackie", Ruffnut, a tall and slightly lanky girl comes over him and hugs him by the shoulder, a shark grin plastered on her lips, "Hiccup has talked us a lot about you."

"In fact, you're the only thing he talks about lately", Tuffnut, her twin, adds in a secretive tone as he takes the space at Jack's left flank and imitates his sister's gesture.

"Um, really?"

"Oh, yes" they answer simultaneously, giving Jack chills down his back. He doesn't know why, but the pair seems dangerous in some way that has nothing to do with the fact that there's dozens of tattoos and piercings exposed on their bodies in the places that their leather clothing doesn't cover (and Gods knows what other things you could find under the material).

Surprisingly, the one that saves him from the twins' grasp is Merida, who brings Jack closer to her and pats him in the back reassuringly "Stop scaring the poor boy you dumbheads, or I'll have to show you out through the balcony", she scolds them and both siblings groan in annoyance, to immediately look at each other with amazement in their eyes.

"That would be amazing!"

Jack stares at their display of butting heads and hard punches in the shoulders and absentmindedly wonders to himself if they're high on something. He looks at Merida with a frown, part because of the strangeness of the situation and part because he still can't quite figure the redhead's behavior. "Are they always like that, or..?"

"The twins? Don't mind them; they're a pair of idiots, but pretty fun too." She turns to look Jack dead in the eyes, and for a moment he gulps and just stares back. Merida's steel expression softens, and she looks apologetically at him. "You know, I wanted to say sorry for the other day."

Although she doesn't make any effort to offer him a proper explanation, Jack shrugs his shoulders and gifts her with a sympathetic smile, because he cant tell by Merida's body language that apologizing for her actions isn't something the redheaded is accustomed to. "It's okay, don't worry about it."

"Really!?" She cries excitedly, and when Jack nods, she pats his back once. Hard. "Thank you so much! Astrid was so mad at me, you don't even know, this week has been hell, she wouldn't let touch her at all but she would walk around the house basically naked and dude-"

"Okay, okay! That's enough Merida", Astrid interrupts her with an arched brow and Merida smirks tightly.

Jack realizes then and there that if he's going to survive this party without getting a nosebleed he should start drinking, so he brings the still cold bottle to his parted lips and takes a sip of the golden liquid. Not so bad.

 

*

Astrid answers the door for the fiftieth time tonight, and on the other side stands a very frustrated Hiccup.

"Hey, what took you so long? The party started two hours ago man!" She reprimands him drowsily while taking his helmet and leather jacket from his hands to put them away.

He follows her around, angrily rambling with his hands moving like crazy. "I was supposed to have a appointment with a client and he kept me waiting and hour and a half before appearing." He sighs and rolls his shoulders, tired after being hunched over the stupid client's back for nearly an hour. "Is everyone already here?"

Astrid moves to the kitchen knowing that her friend is after her, her movements fluid despite (or due to) the alcohol, and as she did before with Jack she goes to the fridge and hands Hiccup a bottle of his favorite beer. "Yeah, they're all in the living room." She opens one for herself and drowns a large sip. "Keeping Jack's company. He's a little tipsy."

Hiccup almost spits out his own drink after hearing Astrid's casual tone. "Tipsy? You better be joking, Astrid." He hisses his words and moves to the living room at an angry pace.

"I just wanted him to loosen up a bit!" She explains hurriedly and follows her friend, trying to stop him. She grabs him by an arm and turns him so they're looking at each other, a furious glare from Hiccup practically passing through her skull. "You know our friends; you weren't here and I knew they would try to make him uncomfortable about", she signals between them with a strangled face, "thing you two have. So I gave him a beer and everything was going totally fine until the rest copied my idea and gave him more drinks." She spits the last words and Hiccup grips the bridge of his nose.

"Astrid, he's underaged, you shouldn't have given him a beer in the first place!"

"Aww, c'mon, don't be such a hypocrite!" She hits his chest lightly and looks upwards, now definitely annoyed. "When we were around his age we used to drink and we're fine! It's not like the world is ending!"

Hiccup shakes his head. He's conscious that the blonde girl's right, but he's so angry that he doesn't want to recognize it. His expression deflates, thought, and involuntarily his bravado turns into concern when he realizes something else. "Astrid, his father is so totally going to kill me", he groans though clenched teeth.

The blonde girl suddenly laughs out loud. "Uh, I think we have other issues to attend to first."

Hiccup opens his eyes and looks behind his shoulder, following Astrid's amazed gaze, and he watches helplessly as, on the opposite side of the room, some random dude is taking a belly shot on Jack.

Jack's face goes hot, both from the embarrassment of having a group of people cheering loudly and looking excitedly at him, and also due to the pleasing sensation of a cold tongue drinking the alcohol that's contained in his belly button.

It's over sooner than he thought, and the boy that took the shot —what was his name again? Jamie?— looks at him with a huge smile. He pulls Jack to his feet from his previously lying position and the teen holds onto him on a death grip, all of the sudden dizzy because of the alcohol.

Hiccup approaches them in a few steps and yanks Jack out of the other man's grip, a warning expression in his face while doing so. Jack, on the other hand, seems very pleased as he hooks himself onto the older male's neck and cries his name excitedly. "Hiccup!"

"Jack, where's your t-shirt!?" He separates them to take a good look at the teenager: he's obviously drunk, lacking his t-shirt and one shoe, with his hair tangled in every direction and the biggest loaded smile he has ever seen on anyone's face. His eyes roam to his lithe chest again, the skin there flushed pink and the nipples perky, the expansion of ivory skin that goes down to his narrow hips glistening with the remainder of sticky alcohol and that fucking guy's saliva, and he wants to kill somebody and take Jack to the nearest room and fuck his brains out of his skull at the same time.  
"Dunno", Jack snorts and hugs him tightly again, nuzzling his neck, making the older boy grip his stronger arms around his thin waist. Hiccup thinks absently that he has to do something about Jack's naked torso soon, but his hands refuse to take his orders as they caress the teen's back and ribs, goosebumps adorning his skin. "We're playing a game! You have to play too!"

Hiccup bites his bottom lip at the younger's cheerful tone, groaning because Jack probably doesn't even know how fucking tempting he's being right now. "Sorry kiddo, but we can't play, we have to go home right now."

"I don't wanna go home yet", he pouts and holds onto Hiccup's shirt.

Viridian serious eyes confront baby blue ones, and the freckled teen is decided to stand his ground on this matter, for the sake of his own mind health and Jack's welfare. "Frostbite", he tries in a soft tone, and Jack seems to pay attention at this, "you're drunk, and I have to take you home. Your father is going to be very angry at me because I didn't take care of you, and we don't want to worry him further, right?"

Jack pouts thinking about it, the gears visibly turning in his head, but after a few seconds he shakes his head. "I don't wanna dad to be mad at you, but I don't wanna go home. I'm having fun!"

Hiccup huffs again, growing annoyed, and he takes him by the arm, moving them to a less crowded corner of the room and leaving their friends to their game. In his haste he finds what he supposes is Jack's t-shirt forgotten over a sofa, and he takes it as well. Jack tries to release himself from Hiccup's soft but forceful grip, but in the end he can't help being cornered by the older and taller man, who hands him the piece of clothing and makes him put it on. The teen looks sadly into green pools, an attempt of puppy eyes, and although Hiccup recognizes that said gaze tugs at his heart strings, he's having nothing of it.

Jack crosses his arms over his now clothes chest in annoyance and Hiccup sighs defeatedly. "C'mon, don't be so childish-"

"I'm not being childish!" Jack spits his words furiously and looks at the older boy with a heated expression. He feels less drunk suddenly. "I'm doing just what everybody else's doing in this party, but they don't have to worry about having a fucking babysitter following like them around!"

Jack has the decency of looking regretful upon seeing Hiccup's hurt expression. "Hic, I'm sorry... I didn't meant it..." He tries to hug him, only to be harshly rejected. The freckled man puts distance between them, viridian clouded eyes looking at some point far beyond Jack's head. He tries tentatively once again. "Hic?"

He stares coldly at Jack's sorry features. "I won't be bothering you anymore. When you're ready to go home find me and I'll ride you there." Hiccup turns to leave and in the blink of an eye his frame loses into the sea of laughing people.

Jack stands in the spot, feeling tears puddling at his eyes, but he refuses to let them fall. He doesn't try to follow Hiccup, and instead looks at his feet.

All of the sudden, another pair of feet appear next to his, and he lifts his gaze to find a pair of different green eyes staring at him, an indecipherable expression behind them. Over his left eyelid and part of his cheek there're three marks tattooed in dark blue ink, detail that Jack wonders about. The man is older than him and probably older than Hiccup, too, and Jack notices vaguely that he isn't handsome, yet there's an strange attractiveness to his face. The stranger smiles at him, more a toothy smirk than anything. "I saw you fighting with you boyfriend. If you want me to go and beat the shit out of him, you can totally ask and I'll do it gladly."

Jack shakes his head lightly and answers his rather unusual proposition with a low tone. "He's not my boyfriend."

The other male's smirk widens at his statement. "You shouldn't let your little argument ruin you the fun", he offers a plastic cup that Jack didn't saw before and he takes it, if a bit dubiously. "I'm Dagur, by the way."

Jack smiles politely. "Jack."

Dagur pushes him a little from the corner, heading the teen's willingly moving body to the currently empty sofa. "Jack", he says his name slowly, almost tasting it with his tongue, as the white haired boy takes a curious sip of the reddish liquid that fills the cup. It tastes really good. "What about we get to know each other a little better?"

*

Hiccup positively fumes in anger as he rests his forearms on the balcony's rail, letting his head fall between his shoulders and relishing in the way the cold night's air washes over his body like a soothing balm.

He should've really known better than to call Jack childish. It was basically the worst move he could have ever pull. Hiccup knew from experience what it was to be treated like a kid when you're trying to become an adult, to stand for yourself. He just worried over the teenager; it wasn't solely for the fact that Hiccup had and obvious romantic interest in the boy, but also because Jack's innocence was something very dearly to him. It was astonishingly beautiful how the teen's emotions showed openly on his face, from embarrassment to happiness, because Jack was the purest person at heart that Hiccup'd ever known. It reminded the older male of those sayings about everybody having an inner child.

He bites his bottom lip and tugs at it lightly, a sharp breath abandoning his mouth as he straightens and comes back inside.

He's fixing this shit right now.

*

Jack's mind feels unusually foggy at this point.

He has rejected Dagur's attempts to get 'affective' with him for the third time now, but the teenager can feel how his bones and eyelids get heavier with any passing minute, and it's starting to freak him out. He realizes too late that he shouldn't have taken that drink.

Dagur chuckles, completely unaware of Jack's dark thoughts, instead taking a good glance at the thin frame almost sprawled on the couch by now. He touches Jack soft white hair, and the younger male wishes he could tell him to keep his hands to himself, but he doesn't have the energy to do so. Dagur kisses his cheek softly —he smells like cigarettes and Jack scrunches his nose in disgust— and coos at the boy's obvious struggle. "Shh, Jackie", he whispers in his ear, the boy's breath slightly ragged in fear at his muscles' lack of response, "aren't you stubborn? I'm sure I could put that stubbornness to use."

He aligns their faces and Jack isn't quite sure of what he means or what he's doing, because his brain feels like it's swimming in a pool of warm water, but the adrenaline that hits the teenager finally gets his body to follow his orders. He lifts a hand to the other male's neck and scratches there as hard as he can, getting blood and skin scraps in reward.

Dagur yelps and separates from him, touching the place when Jack hurt him and finding blood on his fingers. He makes a sound at the bottom of his throat then, a mad roar that urges Jack to escape, but Dagur yanks him by his hair to the sofa. "You little shit, I'm going to kill you!"

A punch to Dagur's face chimes in then, and Jack hasn't ever been so relieved of seeing Hiccup's furious face. The punk yanks Dagur by his hair much like he did with Jack, and to match the swollen chin he has just got, Hiccup throws him another violent blow, this time to his nose.

A sickening 'crack' and some disgusted and horrified squeaks can be heard when Hiccup breaks Dagur's nose, as well as said nose's owner cry of pain. The freckled teen throws him to the floor and immediately after he releases him two other men appear on the scene, putting Dagur to his feet. "If I ever see you again around the boy I'll kill you, Dagur."

Hiccup's words are harsh, rough, angry, and sound like a mix between a promise and a curse. Jack absently notices that the music has stopped at some moment during the fight, and he does so because he can hear Merida's indignant cry of 'Astrid, there's fucking blood in our carpet!' somewhere in the background.

Dagur spits and smirks like a madman at Hiccup, but the other man doesn't even flinch under his scrutiny. "You can keep your whore for yourself, Haddock; he isn't that special."

Before Hiccup can effectively turn Dagur's smug face into a bloody pulp, Snotlout and Aster are holding their friend in a strong grip, while Astrid and Merida show the offenders to the door.

Jack looks helplessly at Hiccup with big, watery blue eyes, and it's like the older boy just came back from a trance. He walks the two steps separating them and holds the little boy tightly against his chest, shushing him as Jack fights the tears. "Th-thank you", his voice comes out ragged, tiny and scared, the effects of whatever substance was intoxicating his body still present, making his speech difficult, "I'm so-sorry."

Hiccup looks intently at him, searching for something into Jack's eyes that assures him that he didn't arrived too late. "Are you okay? Did he-"

"No, no", Jack shakes his head and hides himself further in Hiccup's chest, his whole body trembling. "Can we go home?"

Hiccup nods in agreement and walks with Jack still attached to his body. Astrid finds them between the people, after dispersing them and putting the music on again to restore the normality as much as possible, the blonde girl handing them their things (including Jack's lost shoe and jacket) and dismissing them with a concerned but understanding look.

Hiccup decides to deal with her (and everybody, really) tomorrow, guiding Jack instead through the deserted streets to where he parked his bike.

Jack, that usually doesn't mind the cold, is suddenly freezing as he stares at Hiccup opening the bike's compartment and taking another helmet for him. He's trembling too much, and he feels like he can't breathe, so he anchors onto Hiccup in search of warm and reassurance.

"Jack, look at me". He hears his voice and it's gentle and caring and soft, not like the one he used when he threatened Dagur, so Jack peeks through his forming tears. Hiccup's heart breaks a little in his chest at the view, and he really feels the raw necessity of taking something between his hands and breaking it. "Everything is fine. You're fine. You're safe."

Hiccup kisses his cheek then, his almost faint stubble tingling Jack's skin. Hiccup smells of forest and ink and damp grass, and Jack can't help but notice how different this kiss is from the one that Dagur took from him; because now he lingers into the touch and he grasps Hiccup's bigger hand with his own. He whimpers audibly. "I want to stay with you tonight, please. Don't let me go," he pleads.

Hiccup doesn't give an answer. He peels his jacket off and helps Jack to put it on before doing the proper with the helmet. He brushes a kiss to Jack's forehead before putting the helmet correctly in place, and soon after he's already on the bike with his own helmet on. Jack climbs immediately behind him and he takes a hold on Hiccup's waist. The buzzing sound and warm of the bike's engine comforts the teen in an odd way, and he lets his dizzy head rest against the soft surface of Hiccup's shoulders and back.

As they pass the empty streets and sleepy houses Jack feels increasingly at ease. Too soon the ride comes to a stop, and Jack opens his eyes to the familiar sight of his front porch. He climbs off the vehicle and takes his helmet off, looking hopefully at the freckled man.

Hiccup doesn't move at first. Then, he lights off the bike's engine and pulls his helmet to stare at Jack. The little boy says nothing; although there's a mute invitation dancing on his lips.

He finally climbs off the bike as well, following the younger teen inside the dark house.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long, you don't even know, seriously.
> 
> I thought I'd have more free time to write after my finals and coming back home for Christmas, but I was deeply wrong... I'm super busy right now and it sucks. Also, this chapter was really hard to write; I'm a little blocked after completing Hijack Week's works (they were like 8000 words and English is not my mother tongue, so... Big deal for me, yeah) and I didn't know how to continue this story.
> 
> This is super short compared to last chapter but I promise to update more frequently to make up for it. Also, it's poorly written and basically crap, so sorry. The grammar isn't checked either (why are you even bothering with this..?).
> 
> I'm so sorry.

The Frost's house is empty and dark when both teens enter it, but instead of switching the lights on, Jack takes Hiccup's hand and guides him through the furniture. They go upstairs quietly despite North's obvious absence —the car wasn't parked at the front—, the silence being disturbed only by they soft footsteps and nervous breathing.

They reach Jack's room and its owner closes the door behind them, pausing for a moment to rest his weight against it. Jack lets his eyelids fall over his blue orbs and exhales a ragged breath. He had been wishing for a long time to have Hiccup in his bedroom like this, just the two of them, but now he feels like his legs are made of jelly and the space is too hot for his liking. Maybe he's still a little tipsy.

Hiccup sits on the teen's bed and touches the navy comforter covering it absentmindedly, and Jack can't help the blush that spreads over his cheeks at the view of the tattooed man. Jack had touched himself thinking about him countless of times on that same bed; thinking about his striking green eyes, the freckles that dot his sun-kissed skin, the rough hands that grip his sheets... The full bottom lip that is currently being tugged by white, slightly crooked teeth.

The older male inspects Jack's form still next to the door as well. His small frame seems to be engulfed by Hiccup's leather jacket over his own one, its blackness suiting him in an unexpected way. The material contrasts beautifully with Jack's flawless ivory neck's skin and shocking white hair, and his baby blues are looking in Hiccup's direction, even if his mind seems to be far away from this room.

Hiccup smiles at him. A little, lopsided, fond, calming grin, and Jack feels brave suddenly.

The younger teen shorts the distance that separates them in two wide steps and throws himself over the other teen's body, effectively straddling his lap as he hides his burning face in a freckled shoulder. Hiccup gasps, surprised and more than a little turned on at the new friction provided by Jack's hips against his, the sound turning in a deep moan when Jack's tongue shyly comes to play with the sensitive nerves on his neck's side.

"Jack, stop it", Hiccup pushes his shoulders with care but forcefully. His attempt is completely ignored as Jack presses the wet muscle flat over his pulse point, and Hiccup clenches his teeth to keep down a moan, "we can't do this."

The teen pauses reluctantly for a moment, thinking about how maybe he read the signals wrong, or if there were really signals in the first place. Jack shifts his weight to touch as little as possible of the other male's body, even as his skin aches for the freckles on the other body, and he lifts his gaze to look into green eyes with a hurt expression, words slightly blurred. "You don't like me?"

Hiccup is positively disbelieved by such a nonsense. "Have you ever looked yourself on a mirror? Of course I like you", the white haired boy smiles shyly when two rough hands hold his cheeks, "but we can't do this, not tonight, at least." His smile drops and a pout replaces it.

"Why not?" Jack feels like he's being lectured right now, his protesting inner child making Hiccup want to pet him.

"Because I really, really like you", Hiccup kisses his cold forehead before continuing, "and I don't want this to be a one-night stand, or you regretting it in the morning because you were drunk... I don't want to do this the same night another prick tried to rape you in my face."

"I'm not drunk", Jack flinches at the anger on his voice and hugs his neck tighter, then he whimpers quietly when he feels their hips touching. "And it wasn't your fault."

Even if there's nobody else in the house they're talking in shushed tones. Hiccup doesn't acknowledge Jack's comment; instead he holds the teen and moves to rest at the bed's headboard. He kisses the top of his white hair and roams his bigger hands over the teen's back in circular motions to comfort him. "Your birthday is only a week away. I want to take you out, like on a real date, and have a nice time just the two of us together. And after that, you can do whatever you want with me."

"Whatever I want?"

"Yes", Hiccup can't help but laugh at Jack's bewildered expression, "you can decide if we go on or stop it. What were you thinking about?"

The tone is playful and Jack cheeks go aflame, though a yawn escapes his mouth. "Dunno."

"You're too beautiful for your own good", the younger boy's blush increases then when he sees the adoration in Hiccup's viridian eyes, and he bits his bottom lip in wonder, afraid of asking what he's about to.

"Can I ask you something?" When Hiccup silently nods, Jack continues. "Could you, um, kiss me? Like, right now?" Hiccup eyes widen at Jack's petition, pupils blown with desire, and he knows he shouldn't be doing this but he smiles invitingly and Jack's lip is about to split under the force of his teeth.

"Close your eyes". Jack does as he's told immediately, not believing his luck, eyelids tightly scrunched together and hands grasping whatever he finds first —which is Hiccup's t-shirt—. His breath comes ragged and he doesn't notice how much pressure he is putting on his bottom lip until Hiccup releases it softly with a rough finger. "You're always biting your lip."

"Uh-huh".

Hiccup's grin widens at the other's noncommittal sound. Jack wants to protests at the sudden loss of warm when his hands leave his back, then he tries not to whimper when one of them touches his ribs lazily while the other one caresses his nape deliciously. He feels like he's burning from the inside out and he's starting to fidget, a strangled moan rasping his throat when the movement rubs their hips together again. Hiccup isn't much better: he didn't really had any intention of kissing the younger boy tonight, but the view of an obviously needy and obedient Jack is throwing his willpower down the sink as seconds go by. Thanks to the moonlight that is filtering through the blinds Hiccup can appreciate every single detail of Jack's face, from pale eyelashes falling onto embarrassed red cheeks to rosy chapped lips mildly open, and he's truly beautiful indeed.

It would be so easy to shove his tongue in his mouth violently and taste him it almost hurts. His fingertips itch for grabbing handfuls of white hair and scrapping its roots until having Jack whimpering under him with the force of his orgasm, calling his name incessantly in a breathless plea for more of Hiccup's attention. "Have you ever kissed someone before?"

Blue eyes fly open at the sudden question. His voice is unusually deep and it sends shivers down his spine, effectively grinding their hips together for the fourth time. Jack's cheeks are now uncomfortably hot after moaning helplessly, and he's sure he's going to faint when he catches a mischievous glint in Hiccup's eyes. "N-no", he stutters shyly.

The dark haired male knows the answer even before it leaves Jack's mouth; his inexperience is so obvious it's downright cute, but Hiccup doesn't wanna take advantage of the situation. He learnt to care too much about the boy straddling his lap in a very short time, and now said boy is looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to do something with his hands still attached to his nape and flank, and Hiccup obliges.

Jack shuts blue eyes in a hurry when the freckled man shorts the distance between their mouths, and when Hiccup presses their lips tenderly together he makes an involuntary pleasured sound. Hiccup's lips are fuller and moderately chapped where Jack's are thinner and softer, and the older one's break into a tiny smirk at Jack's happy hum. The white haired boy can feel his guts doing backflips in his body as he hugs Hiccup's neck and shoulders to mold their mouths closer, their hips moving again against each other.

Hiccup drunk only one beer tonight but Jack can still smell it in his breath. He wants to taste it, so he opens his mouth timidly to try and lick the other man's bottom lip, only for Hiccup to take him by the shoulders and separate them instantly. "Not so fast frostbite", he laughs and Jack hides his embarrassed face in the crook of a freckled neck, "I can't believe how eager you are".

"I'm not eager", Jack huffs, but the dramatic effect is broken by a sneaky yawn. He tries to remain angry at him anyway, and he digs a pointy finger in his chest accusingly "and you're a fucking tease."

"Look at you, tiny cursing thing", he laughs louder this time, making Jack pout. "It's okay, I'm just messing with you", Hiccup caresses his cheek sweetly and the white haired boy leans against the touch with a content sigh. "You can be as eager as you want."

"Just when you want me to", Jack bites his tongue after his rather harsh reply, but he's no backing now. "I don't know why we have to wait until my birthday to do these things."

Jack almost melts in the bed when Hiccup's nose nuzzles his ear provocatively, his fingers digging in the other's shoulders and his bottom lip finally breaking under his teeth's pressure. "Because that way I won't feel so bad about being fucking such a cute thing like you."

At this point Jack's blush is permanent in his features, just darker shades being added at the pink cheeks depending on how embarrassed he is. Right now he is definitely about to faint as Hiccup's filthy words —promise— are blown on his ear.

"Wait, we're going to... fondue?" His brows scrunch together in concern.

"What?" Hiccup snorts confusedly.

"Never mind", he licks his bottom lip unconsciously and winces when the tiny cut there stings under his tongue.

"Don't worry. We'll do just whatever you feel comfortable with", Hiccup can't help it and he gives him another chaste kiss, tasting blood and a strange fresh sweetness in Jack's breath, "and we'll go really slow."

"You don't have to swear it", he rolls his eyes and replies with his mind in their first kiss. "I'm not so naive, I think I can handle more than a few bad kisses."

Before Jack even realizes it he's being suddenly lifted from Hiccup's lap and thrown onto the mattress while the other male catches his hands in one of his own and pins him down to the bed. The movement is so fast and unexpected that the younger boy finds himself breathless and with his heart beating madly against his ribcage. When he looks upwards there's something predatory written all over Hiccup's smug face and Jack gulps wary of it.

The older male nuzzles him again, letting his nose graze what little exposed skin he can find of Jack's neck, earning trembling whimpers and closed eyes from the boy under him. Although the best reaction arrives when Hiccup's tongue nips delicately against Jack's jaw and earlobe, his adam's apple wobbling nervously and his hips bucking upwards embarrassingly in search of too much needed friction.

"I didn't know my kisses were so bad." Jack wants to wipe Hiccup's knowing grin away from his attractive face. Really. "Sorry, what were you saying about not being the most childish teenager ever?"

"I'm starting to not like you as much as I thought", he huffs helplessly, because when Hiccup dives and places a tender open-mouthed kiss to his neck he's sighing happily and running his fingers through soft chestnut strands.

"I think you should sleep, you need to rest", he kisses him again on the same spot and Jack is quivering completely delighted by now.

"I'm not tired", Jack doesn't protest when Hiccup peels him off the two jackets and shoes he's still sporting, yawning out loud and betraying his own statement in the process. "I want to keep doing this."

Hiccup laughs when Jack shrugs his shoulders carelessly at the mention of 'this'. "We will keep doing this after you sleep a little. You feel fine right now, but tomorrow you'll be hungover for sure." The younger boy squeaks quietly when Hiccup lifts him from the bed to tuck him in.

Then Jack grips Hiccup's wrist and looks pleadingly to him. "Are you going to stay?"

The freckled teen bites his lip in consideration. "I shouldn't, you know? Your father will come back soon and I don't think he'd like to find me here when that happens."

Jack pouts tiredly. "Please. I want to be with you."

"Ah...", the white haired boy can't see it, but Hiccup's struggling on the inside, debating with himself whether to stay or not. The couple was usually caught in movies, and he doesn't want to wake up and leave through the window when North enters the room in the morning making assumptions and trying to skin him for sleeping with his precious son. On the other hand, Jack's eyes are watery —due to his sleepiness and not wanting for Hiccup to— and the view breaks Hiccup's heart into tiny pieces.

He finally lies his body on the bed and hugs the other's small frame softly, Jack scooting closer to his much warmer body and nuzzling his lips shyly against Hiccup's cheek. "Thank you", he sighs tiredly and Hiccup kisses his forehead. "You aren't like I imagined."

"How's that?" Hiccup rests his head in one of his arms, using the other to bring Jack even closer and pet his white hair. Jack loves to have his hair played with.

"You know", Jack is mumbling under his tender caresses, the tiredness slowly sinking in, "you look like this tough, sexy guy... but you're really a softie." He yawns quietly.

The younger boy doesn't see it with his blue orbs now closed, but Hiccup's cheeks go slightly warm at the comment. He has never think about himself like a hot guy; quite on the contrary, he was a literal talking fishbone until his growth spurt hit. In fact, much like Jack himself, although the white haired boy was taking more time to grow up than what Hiccup did.

When the green eyed man is about to reply him Jack is already asleep, and he chuckles under his breath. He watches Jack's sweet face sleep for a few minutes before leaving the bed reluctantly. Hiccup presses his lips to Jack's extremely softly for the last time, taking his jacket with him and then making it to the stairs.

Hiccup goes downstairs as silently as he can with the lights still off. He finally reaches the door and sighs relieved, proud of his sneaky abilities.

He opens the door and standing mere centimeters away from him North and Stoick are looking at him wide-eyed. Hiccup shierks.

Nailed it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! 
> 
> The celebrations and coming back home makes it a bit difficult to find time to write, but I'm expecting to finish this story in 3 (4 max.) chapters! We're coming closer to the end guys!
> 
> WARNING: the amount of fluffiness in this chapter can make certain human beings (the Grinch is an human being?) nauseous, so read under your discretion! 
> 
> I'd like to thank Toffy for offering to be my beta and doing such a good job checking this chapter! You're a sunshine!
> 
> I hope you like it and please leave your thoughts in the comments! Merry (late) Christmas and Happy New Year if I don't update before it! Enjoy your holidays!
> 
> Now go read this! Go go go! 
> 
> \- Caliope.

After North and Stoick caught him trying to sneak out of the Frost's residence Hiccup found himself being conducted to the kitchen and sitting on a stool at the island. North prepared three cups hot chocolate (pouring a generous stream of liquor in them) without uttering a single word, then took a seat in front of him, Stoick at his side.

The two men swallow down the beverage in seconds, while Hiccup sips it in short gulps, his nervousness making him wary of their every movement. He expected being asked by an angry North, and for his father to later reprimand him when they were alone, but their silence was by far worse than being yelled.

He's startled by North's scruffy voice. "Where's Jack?"

"He's upstairs", Hiccup takes a trembling sip of his drink to calm his speech, "he fell asleep on the ride home. I left him on his bed."

North makes a noncommittal sound from the bottom of his throat, eyeing the counter absentmindedly, and Hiccup chews on his lip. His father talks next. "Something happened tonight, son." Two pairs of green eyes meet, one concerned and the other guarded. "Another person was assaulted, this time a boy."

Hiccup's breath is caught at the gravity of the words and the deepness of the voice. For some reason he can feel in his guts that 'this time' is different from the previous one, but he can't bring himself to speak his suspicions. "Is he okay?"

Stoick simply shakes his head. "We couldn't arrive fast enough..." Hiccup gasps quietly, eyes widening with fear. "He's in medical care now." His father's hands are trembling, whether due to rage or sorrow, he doesn't know. "We didn't catch them."

He's shivering, too. The first victim was plainly robbed, a little violently but nothing more. He can't even start to imagine how terrified she was... But this is downright cruel, and disgusting, and as horrible images fill his mind Hiccup doesn't notice, but he is gripping the cup too hard between his fingers. His thoughts roam unconsciously to the sleeping form of Jack upstairs and he feels nauseous.

"North and I will keep this undercover, we don't want to scare people more than what's necessary. If things stay calm maybe we could catch them the next time."

"Do you really think that's going to work?" Hiccup looks at his father disbelieved, his words outraged but the sound low. North shifts in his seat uncomfortably. He doesn't like Stoick's way of handling the situation either, although he's not going to argue with him; after all, he's the chief of police. Hiccup, on the other hand, has other plans. "Are we going to wait until they rape another boy to do something?"

Stoick's gaze is severe, but his son isn't backing up. North looks the tense exchange until the larger man finally wins, Hiccup's body hunching over the counter with a defeated expression. "There's no 'we' in this, Hiccup", his tone is as unappealable as his eyes, "I want you to stay away of this."

"But dad-"

"No, Hiccup", Stoick shakes his head and Hiccup's mouth falls shut despite his anger, "I'm not yielding to this."

An strangled "Okay" is heard through the younger's clenched teeth, but that does little to relax the ambient, and Hiccup takes his jacket and helmet from the counter to make it to the door. "I think we should go now, North is surely tired."

The two men agree with a nod and they shakes each other's hands in farewell. "Hiccup", North calls him, "can I speak with you about Jack for a minute?" Stoick leaves then alone at the door, excusing himself to start the car, and Hiccup looks at the other man expectantly, but with obvious respect. "I'd like to ask to take care of him", his mouth stretches in the tiniest grin at the freckled boy's surprise before continuing, "I'm sure you know by now how stubborn my son can be... I don't want him to think that I'm overprotecting him without a good reason, but you heard your father, we can't tell anybody about the situation." He pats Hiccup's shoulder affectionately. "You're a good lad. He'll surely listen to you."

"I'll try my best", Hiccup nods, seriousness taking over his features. "Jack is really important to me, North, I hope you know that."

"I know, lad", the bulky man pats his shoulder again, squeezing there for a moment' "I know."

*

Jack, like most of the population of Berk, didn't found out about the second assault, and life went on easily enough.

That Saturday was Jack's birthday, and he spent the first half of the day with his family: they held a little celebration at the Frost's residence and had lunch and ate cake and the white haired teen opened his presents, thanking them for coming and dismissing them with just enough time to prepare himself for his date.

Hiccup's friends (which now we're also his friends, although it still sounded a little strange to Jack) also celebrated his birthday the previous afternoon at the studio, playing silly board games and getting a bit drunk thanks to the fridge being stocked with beer, and after that the freckled boy gave him a ride home and asked him out on a date.

It actually wasn't that unexpected, but Jack felt his stomach turn dangerously inside him at the question anyway. He obviously said yes, maybe a little more eagerly and stuttering than what he would have liked, though it didn't really mattered anymore. He was going on a date with Hiccup, and he already knew that the other boy had feelings for him, so that fact made him slightly less terrified about the situation.

Or at least that's what he thought, because when the doorbell rings announcing the tattooed man he almost jumps out of the window then and there.

As Jack opens the door —North is probably hiding somewhere to give them more privacy— Hiccup's body is rested against the frame, its owner with a lopsided smirk that makes his knees buckle and feel like jelly under him. He's wearing tight dark jeans and a green t-shirt that indeed brings his eyes out under his usual leather jacket, and he looks so effortlessly good that the younger teen shies a little when he takes into his casual jeans and oversized blue jumper (the same he was wearing the first day the met, because he's cheesy like that).

"Hey, birthday boy", would it be weird to drag him to his room and make out roughly with him? Because that's totally what Jack wants to do upon hearing his husky voice, "ready to go?"

"Ye-yeah", he clears his dry throat for a moment while still looking at him, "just let me grab my coat". Jack takes a few deep breaths before opening the door again and smiling shyly at Hiccup. "Dad, I'm going out!"

Suddenly North appears at the closing door and looks as the boys put their helmets on and climb on Hiccup's bike. "You two better be careful!"

Jack dismisses his father's warning with an unconcerned gesture and takes a firm hold onto the freckled boy's waist, but said male nods reassuringly and waves his hand at him, because he knows which is the real reason behind North's worry.

As Hiccup lights the engine on and starts driving, the younger man rests his cheek against the other's back, seeking comfort and warm against the harsh winter breeze, relaxing immediately at the contact. After a week of Hiccup driving him home from the studio (because he was concerned for his safety, though Jack didn't know that) and overcoming his slightly fear for the bike, he was starting to really appreciate these moments of strange peace that they shared over the engine's deafening sound, with their heartbeats beating strong in their ribs and an ironic feeling of quietness flowing around them.

"Where are we going?" They're reaching the south part of the tiny city, where the forest begins, and Jack's curiosity permeates his voice.

"It's a surprise!" Hiccup's snort is loud enough for Jack to hear it despite the bike's noise. "Don't be so eager!"

When a fair nose rubs against his back timidly the older male knows that Jack's embarrassed, and so he laughs through clenched teeth.

A few minutes pass in complete silence, then the tattooed man stops the bike and waits for Jack to climb off it before parking. When the white haired boy takes in their surroundings he notices that they're in the middle of nowhere, the environment smelling pleasantly of damp grass and soil due to the humidity of the air, tall pine trees growing towards the sky making the place dark. He almost couldn't see the slowly obscuring sky through the thick branches.

A tattooed hand slips on his own and Jack gasps, startled. Hiccup takes his helmet with a smile and puts it into the bike's compartment, then properly takes his hand again and starts walking into the woods.

"What are we going to do?" They're hunching a little to avoid the lowest branches, but some scratch Jack's cheeks anyway.

Hiccup turns with an excited grin at him and he can see how his eyes are shining in the dark. "I want to show you something."

"You know, we could have gone just for some coffee or something like that..."

The older boy stops in his tracks as soon as he notices the hesitation in the younger's voice, looking his face intently for any trace of discomfort. "Are you afraid?" Jack shakes his head hurriedly and Hiccup caresses the hand he's holding with a rough thumb. "I promise you'll like it, you don't have to be nervous. I want you to have a good time."

"With you", he adds, a small smile tugging at his thin lips. "Okay, go on."

Hiccup looks back at him with something undecipherable in his viridian eyes, next pecks him briefly on his mouth's corner, earning a blush from the boy.

They continue their path, although Jack doesn't really pay it much attention, feeling giddy from the teasing kiss. Then, some minutes later, they reach their destination: in front of them a clearing extends a few meters, the space completely circled by the tall trees and surely invisible from the rest of the world. Upon seeing it the boy's view immediately goes upwards, mouth falling open with a shuddering breath as thousands of starts shine next to a pale, round moon on the now dark sky.

He feels Hiccup shifting somewhere behind him, but he doesn't rotate in his place to see what he's doing. "Keep your eyes closed for a moment", he breathes in his ear and Jack does so obediently, just like he did one week ago in his bedroom. After that first make-out session at his house Hiccup didn't kissed him again during the days before their date, and Jack wonders absently if he's going to do it now. He can hear muffled sounds in the background, as well as smell something new, and his eyes stay closed reluctantly, his curiosity almost taking the best of him. At some point Hiccup returns to his side and takes his hand, guiding him a few steps to the center of the clearing. He breathes hotly against the shell of his hear and Jack inhales sharply. "You can open them now."

At Jack's feet there's a crackling fire and basket on top of a picnic blanket. His eyes water unconsciously and he bites down on his lip to swallow a sob, his heart fluttering in his chest. "Oh my," he whispers tremblingly, "Hiccup, this... This is amazing."

"Do you really like it?" The blue eyed boy hugs him tightly, nodding his head in his chest as an answer. "I didn't want to make you cry, I'm sorry-"

"No, please, don't be," Jack lifts his head from his hiding place and smiles brightly at him, making the slightest of blushes creep up Hiccup's cheeks, "this is the most beautiful thing someone has ever done for me. Thank you so much."

The tattooed teen returns his smile fondly, taking off his glasses to wipe the tears from icy blue eyes. "You", he nips his nose, making Jack laugh, "are beautiful, so I have to do a lot of beautiful things for you."

"This is truly fantastic, really," Jack shakes his head amused, "now I feel bad for thinking that you were a creep just moments ago."

"Oh yeah? So I'm a creep?" The younger boy gasps breathlessly as both of them fall to the ground under Hiccup's force, laughing uncontrollably when he feels fingers tickling mercilessly at his sides. The older boy doesn't stop until he's begging and he has started crying again. When he finally calms down his giggles enough to take a few breaths, Hiccup's big, viridian eyes are glued to his blue, bottomless ones, and Jack parts his lips unintentionally. The freckled man, on the other hand, takes the gesture as an invitation, and he lowers his head ever so slowly to place his lips against Jack's own.

The smaller body quivers at the contact, eyes falling shut. Feeling brave despite his feverishness, Jack lifts his hands and lets them roam through Hiccup's hair and nape, tugging when the other boy bites softly on his bottom lip. A small moan escapes the younger teen's mouth at the movement and Hiccup part his lips with an expert tongue, coaxing Jack's own to join it inside his cavity. His trembling hands forget how to move and grip Hiccup's shoulders tightly instead, while the freckled man laps at his lips and tongue, and Jack's mewls helplessly. Hiccup lets him go and nuzzles his neck whilst Jack catches his breath back, his body feeling like a flustered mess under the heavier one.

"We should eat something", Hiccup murmurs hotly and grazes his teeth against Jack's pulse point, sending shivers down his spine.

"Yeah", he rasps, "we should".

*

Inside the basket there were several things; from a thermos with hot chocolate to marshmallows to strawberries, and they ravished the food before lying comfortably on the blanket and covering themselves with another one to watch the sky and talk whatever came to their minds.

At some point Jack is falling asleep against Hiccup's side, much to both teen's delight. "Hey," warm lips brush against his forehead, "we should go back. I don't think your father'd appreciate it if I made you sleep in the middle of a forest on our first date."

"Umm", he yawns, a small pout filling his relaxed features, "I don't want to go yet. We should stay here forever."

"Lucky for us I'm a bit more responsible than you", Hiccup teases him and Jack holds out his tongue mockingly, standing on his feet and offering a hand for him to take. The older male stands up as well, then hugs him by the waist to steal him a little kiss, erasing the pout from Jack's face instantly. "We can come back any other day."

Hiccup puts the fire out while Jack folds the blankets, and the first one leaves it hidden at one of the clearing's extremes to pick it back later.

The lift back home is even more pleasant than the previous one, and too soon the tattooed man is parking his bike in front of the Frost's residence. Hiccup climbs off it to walk with Jack to the door, and when they're under the porch they smile sheepishly at each other.

The older teen shifts awkwardly in the spot and a visible blush tints his cheeks as he takes a tiny wrapped packet from one of his jacket's pockets. "I didn't give you my gift."

"You shouldn't have bothered", Jack takes the box in his hands with a bewildered expression and his face red. He opens the package with trembling hands to reveal a handcrafted leather bracelet, plain except for a small glass charm, shaped like a snowflake.

"Thank you very much, Hic," his eyes never leave the gift as he talks, "it's lovely." He puts it on and extends his arm to show it, the dark material contrasting against his fair skin beautifully, a proud smile on his lips.

"I'm glad you like it", he sighs relieved, but soon after his posture changes. He clears his throat and seriousness takes over his features. "Jack, would you like to go out with me?"

Jack inhales sharply at the question, his cheeks now going impossibly red as he nods shyly at the gorgeous man in front of him. "Of-of course, I'd l-love to."

Hiccup smiles the most sincere, happiest grin Jack's ever seen him give to anyone, then grabs the younger boy by the chin and kisses him long and lovingly, one arm wrapped around Jack's thin waist loosely. Their lips part and they look at each other delightedly before kissing again.

"Happy birthday, Jack."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long.
> 
> This chapter is crap because I can't write smut to save my life, so... Yeah, sorry.
> 
> I hope everybody had a Happy New Year. I'm not feeling really well lately so the updating dates will maybe take a little bit longer. I hope you like this chapter.
> 
> \- Caliope.

Some weeks after Hiccup and him started going out, Astrid decided to ask Jack for a realistic design of a spix macaw, and she fell completely in love with it, getting it tattooed by Hiccup on her shoulder a few days later.

Ever since that moment more and more clients entered the studio requesting designs from Jack, and even if he was certainly really happy and proud of his improvement (what was more cool than having your art inked in other people’s bodies?), he was also working too hard. And Hiccup and Aster were pretty busy nowadays as well, tattooing more clients than ever thanks to Jack’s sudden popularity.

Despite the extra work, life was going on peacefully for the new pair. As Jack lifts his head from his sketching table next to Hiccup’s post, he can’t help but smile dopily at the freckled man, who’s currently finishing one of Aster’s watercolor-styled designs on a girl’s forearm. Viridian eyes turn to look at him, feeling observed, and they crinkle at the edges when their owner smirks mischievously at him. Jack’s cheeks redden, shyness washing over him even though he sticks his tongue out to him playfully.

He knows he’ll pay for his mockery later, but he doesn’t care. In fact, he’s looking forward to it. He has gotten to know a lot about his (the word puts a dumb smile on his pale lips) ‘boyfriend’ during those first weeks of dating, specially about his body language, and it sometimes drove Jack mad how many little gestures Hiccup could do when he talked, or kissed him, or laughed, but at the same time it had his mind wandering to them too often.

Jack huffs when he notices he has been distracted by them again, his previously fine sketch now conformed by rough and messy lines. He erases them with dextrous fingers and sighs, a pout appearing on his mouth. He’ll have to start almost all over again.

"Hey, lovely", he smiles timidly upon feeling Hiccup’s nose grazing the shell of his ear and a warm, larger hand embracing his waist, "I thought you’d be finished by now."

They had wanted to go to the cinema after work, but Jack gazes at his watch and realizes that it won’t be possible after all. He needs to finish this first. He sighs quietly. “It’s not my fault; I can’t concentrate due to a certain person being too handsome”, he replies quietly, a toothy smirk substituting the smile.

"Don’t worry, we can go tomorrow", Hiccup’s voice is low and husky as he towers over Jack from his position next to him, elbows resting lazily on the surface. "I love your fingers", a rough fingertip tickles the back of one of them, sending tiny shocks of pleasure down Jack’s spine, "they’re really talented." The younger boy exhales shakily and glares at the paper in front of him. Hiccup chuckles at his reaction and yeah, Jack fucking loves him, but he’d also love to wipe that smug smile from his beautiful face.

Ever since Jack turned eighteen and they started dating, Hiccup’s behavior alternated between two different attitudes that appealed and frustrated him equally: the older male usually treated him sweetly, all soft kisses and touches, but at the same time he teased him endlessly with suggestive remarks and hot affection that had Jack panting and shivering in less than a sec.

Which is exactly what’s happening right now, back at the present, as Hiccup bites his ear and blows a hot puff of air at it. Jack straightens in his seat to try and prevent himself from squirming, though it doesn’t deceive the taller man if his proud smirk is something to tell by.

"Well, I’d love to be left alone to finish this", Jack remarks rather harshly, making Hiccup pout and back off instantly. He sighs sadly, turning on the stool to look at him directly through his lashes. "I’m sorry Hic, it’s just, I really need to get this done before doing anything else."

"Okay". The mumble is too simplistic and it doesn’t hold any real emotion, which hurts somehow, but before Jack can say anything else about it Hiccup has kissed him on the forehead quickly and gotten back to his own work.

The boy pulls at his soft white strands and huffs, frustrated with himself. The next few minutes pass in silence from his and Hiccup’s part, the only sounds coming from the music player and Aster’s voice while he chats with another client, and it gives him some time to think as he finishes his latest design.

The sexual tension that surrounded them constantly was wreaking havoc between them, specially on moments like the previous one. Jack knew how much Hiccup wanted to ‘go slow’ with their relationship, and even if it was very cute and thoughtful of him, it seemed unnecessary to the younger boy sometimes. It angered him to no end when his boyfriend considered it was too much, for example, to move his rough, delicious hands further down his waist, but on the other hand it was perfectly right to whisper things like ‘I love your fingers’ in his ear like it was nothing. He was having the bitter with the sweet when he only wanted the last one, and it was starting to be not okay at all.

He doesn’t notice Aster’s goodbye, dismissing him with a curt gesture and a short nod. The design is almost finished at last, and he adds the ending lines and details with his tongue so tightly caught between his teeth he feels himself salivating with the numbing pain. He finally sits straight on his stool again, looking proudly at the paper, and puts their pencils and eraser in a tiny drawer under the table, as well as the drawing inside a secure folder. After this, he stands up and arranges his clothing, eventually noticing that the music stopped some time ago and Aster is nowhere to be seen, the lights at the shop’s entrance off.

Hiccup is cleaning his needles free of the multiple colors he used on his last client that afternoon and Jack sighs. The boy has his earphones on, so he doesn’t heard him, and Jack takes in his hunched form and the lack of his energetic self slowly. There are no little movements, none of his feet shaking like they usually do when he’s sitting, none of his lips murmuring the lyrics of whatever song he’s listening to… And when something stings deep in his chest, Jack knows perfectly what it is: guiltiness.

The younger boy moves quietly, as to not startle him, and hugs his neck and back softly. Hiccup’s body relaxes instantly under his weight and that stinging sensation increases tenfold inside him. His boyfriend turns on his stool and looks at him, sad eyes and mouth’s corners falling downwards, so Jack presses an apologetic kiss to a stubble-covered cheek. Then a freckled nose; a strong jaw; a stubborn chin; and in the end to a pair of soft, warm lips, trying to show how sorry he is for snapping at him earlier, and Hiccup seems to understand him and accept his apologies, grasping Jack’s jumper and ribs at his sides to bring him closer to his body and open his mouth with his tongue.

Jack obliges silently, no words needed, and he lets Hiccup maneuver him as he likes, feeling a bit like a rag doll— but, like, in a really good way. His boyfriend roams his hands over his clothed chest and sits him on one of his thighs, getting better access to his mouth and neck, kissing him deliberately languidly and delicately. Jack shudders unconsciously when Hiccup nips his lips a little bit harder than what he normally does, opening his mouth further and gripping fistfuls of shaggy brown hair between his fingers, and he moans faintly.

The older teen chooses that moment to separate them, putting his mouth out of reach when Jack tries to keep kissing him, and he exhales sharply in annoyance. “You’re doing it again!”

"Doing what?" Hiccup retorts, despite knowing exactly what his boyfriend means.

"Stopping!" He shots his hands up and almost hits his face in the process, "You always stop as soon as things start to get just interesting in the slightest!" Hiccup holds his nose’s bridge, clearly irritated as well, but he attempts harder than the white haired male to calm his voice a little, “Jack, we’ve already talked about this.”

"No, we haven’t!" Blue irises are slowly surrounded by a red tint that makes it uncomfortable to look at the freckled face, so he just directs his gaze to his shoes instead. "You’re the one who has talked about it, not we", his voice comes softer now, the words loosening his hold onto Jack’s anger to grab onto something else, "you never asked what my opinion was in the matter."

Hiccup exhales defeatedly. He knew what Jack’s opinion was, there was no real necessity to ask him for it, but he supposed it wasn’t right either to just do what he considered better for the two without his agreement. Two freckled arms hug his little body against his tighter, kissing his wet eyelashes as he talks, more affectionate this time. “You’re right”, Jack’s expression debates itself between a sad pout and a defiant glare, although the first one finally wins over the other, “from now on we’ll do whatever we want until one of us says otherwise. What do you think?”

Jack sobs a small “Okay”, then blinks back his tears and smiles faintly. “Thank you.”

"There’s nothing to thank me for", Hiccup kisses his eyelashes again, this time making he laugh delightedly, "I’m sorry I made you cry. I’m the worst boyfriend ever."

"No, you aren’t; you are the best boyfriend ever."

The older boy smiles fondly at him and nips his nose playfully, relishing in how the note of seriousness in his voice mixes with something near to adoration, and in the squeak that follows it. “Hey”, he waits until Jack’s eyes are fixated on him to continue talking, “what about we go to my house? We can watch a movie and have dinner there, then I’ll take you home whenever you want. How does that sound?”

"Umm", Jack looks at him doubtfully and bites his bottom lip, sudden nervousness taking over his body, "it sounds good, but, like, aren’t your parents home or something?"

"Nah, they’re both working tonight." Valka was a vet who had her own private clinic, but she usually took some nights from her sparse time to give a hand at the local animal shelter, and Stoick was also spending as many nights as possible at the station in case the assaulters decided to attack again.

Hiccup’s statement makes Jack relax visibly, his nervousness at the chance of meeting his parents being replaced by another kind of agitation, more like eagerness. He licks his lips absently, and when he looks upwards his eyes are clear and shiny. “I want pizza.”

*

The cheesy food, now cold, rests in its cheap cardboard box on Hiccup’s kitchen table.

The pair is currently snuggled comfortably on said teen’s bed, heavy green comforter and fluffy pillows covering them, while they watch a rather bad sci-fi movie in the tv positioned in front of them.

Hiccup’s room is everything you’d expect from the freckled male, really: furniture and walls in soft, forest and earth tones, the palette only disturbed by a large quantity of posters and a huge shelf filled with books, CDs and vinyls from all kind of genres. The best part, though, was his desk —a large surface where dozens of sketchbooks, designs and pieces of metal from various projects laid scattered over it, pencil holders full with different drawing tools and jars brimful with obscured water for his watercolors. Hiccup doesn’t let him take a look at his sketches, though, and he puts them quickly in a drawer when Jack asks about them.

One of the older boy’s arms is circling his shoulders loosely, and Jack rests his head on his chest a little bit more. He stopped paying attention to the movie long ago, but he still can follow the main protagonist’s foolish moves, the argument being obvious like that. His blue eyes move to Hiccup’s jaw instead, then they gaze his cheekbones and ears. He bites his lip worryingly and tries to focus on the film once more.

Hiccup is attractive, that’s evident. It usually doesn’t bother Jack’s this much, but tonight, his mind is spinning in his clouded head. They’re completely alone at his house, with the certainty that his parents aren’t going to appear any time soon, lying with their limbs entangled on his soft, warm bed… After that evening’s conversation back at the studio, Jack can feel himself grow hot in his pants thinking about the possibilities.

He squirms his thighs slightly, trying to ease some of the pressure directed to his groin due to his stupid imagination and at the same time not drawing too much awareness to himself, which clearly doesn’t work as he wanted to. Hiccup’s grip on his shoulders tightens when the larger male straightens and looks down at his flushed face, concern plain in his features.

"Are you okay?" Jack squeezes his thighs together with more force at his voice, making his green eyes scrunch together in confusion. "What’s wrong?"

"There’s n-nothing wrong! Why there’d be something w-wrong?"

Hiccup isn’t buying his poor attempt at appearing calm. “Because you look like you’re about to suffocate? And you’re too hot”, he touches his neck to prove his point, and Jack squeaks embarrassedly upon feeling his hand there, “maybe you’ve a fever, we should take the comforter and your jumper off to cool you down a bit–”

"No! I’m fine, really!" Jack grabs the cloth covering his raging hard-on and holds onto it for dear life as Hiccup pulls at it, "Hayden, please-!"  Green eyes widen in understanding when the comforter finally slips from Jack’s grasp, and said boy groans in shame. His normally pale cheeks are violently red right now, lips closed to prevent a sob from escaping as the corners of his eyes go wet in just a few seconds.

"I’m really sorry", he whimpers without meeting his gaze. The fucking thing is still struggling against his pants proudly. "I don’t know how it happened, I was just seeing the movie and… I don’t know, please, I’m so sorry, I should just leave."

He moves to stand up; however, Hiccup catches him by the waist and makes him sit at the bed’s headboard. Jack’s timid gaze meet’s his determined one and he sucks in a breath. There are two dextrous fingers unzipping his tight jeans as he talks. “There’s nothing to be sorry about, and you are not leaving. I’m going to take care of it. Understood?”

Jack suddenly feels hypnotized by the deepness of those eyes staring at his face and the velvety, smooth edge running under that commanding voice, so he does the only thing he can at the moment and nods. Hiccup seems pleased, though, and he lifts his butt from the mattress shortly to take his pants off. He’s wearing navy blue boxers that contrasts beautifully against his pale skin, and the older boy’s tongue licks his lips in anticipation. Jack doesn’t notice the appreciative gesture, too focused on his own bashfulness to think about anything else, and his face too hidden into his trembling hands to actually see anything.

Hiccup grabs his two wrists and pulls them out of his face with just enough pressure to do so, but Jack squeezes his eyes shut instead. The freckled man hums, clearly displeased with the other boy’s display. The white haired teen suddenly feels an open-mouthed kiss to his ear, then another to his jaw, and he’s pretty soon covered in a trail of merciless nips and marks and gasping quietly under Hiccup’s body on the mattress, eyes still closed. 

“Look at me, frostbite, don’t be so shy. C’mon,” he bites his ear rather hard, earning a loud moan from him. He separates his legs with one of his knees and rubs his groin in time with his words, “you wanted things to get interesting, remember? I’m not going to stop this time.” Jack finally opens his eyes at the last sentence, meeting Hiccup’s smirk and squirming under his weight with a wary expression. He’s sure Hiccup wouldn’t trick him like that; the boy is very serious on his words, but Jack can’t help and feel a little bit intimidated by them despite wanting this so much. “There you are, lovely,” the freckled boy smiles sweetly at him and nuzzles their noses together, and Jack smiles at that, too. His voice is husky and his touches are burning against his thighs, but he’s gentle in his movements. “What would you want me to do to you, um?”

"I don’t know", he shudders and closes his eyes, embarrassed at his words again. "I-I have never… You know. Never done anything of this before."

"That’s okay", his words are reassuring, just like his fond caresses over his skin. He hooks his thumbs under his boxer’s waistband and pulls them down, freeing his aching cock and making Jack shiver uncontrollably. "You’re going to like this, but if you need to stop just say so."

Jack nods, eyes opened owlishly to take into his boyfriend’s every tiny action, and Hiccup kisses him hurriedly one more time before going down his body and licking his member unceremoniously. The younger boy buckles his hips upwards instantly, a moan breaking through his lips, so the freckled man holds him onto the bed with two warm hands at his sides as he puts Jack’s member completely in his mouth and sucks softly, and Jack knows right away he’s not going to last long.

Hiccup’s mouth is hot and wet and everything Jack could ever dream of when he circles his tongue around his shaft expertly. His hips keep buckling upward involuntarily while his boyfriend devours him delicately, adding just enough teeth into the equation to make Jack whimper in his hands. Meanwhile, Hiccup’s green eyes are now obscured by lust and his taste buds salivate around the delicious treat that Jack’s shaft makes. Noticing the younger teen’s shaking form, though, he moves his head more vigorously around his member, relishing in the little sounds of pleasure that leave the white haired male’s tongue, and without more warning than a sharp tugging at his brown locks and a loud moan Jack’s coming in his mouth.

He swallows it down quietly, licking his member clean even after Jack’s limbs are limp on the mattress, then pulls his boxers upwards and the comforter over their bodies. The younger boy lays next to him exhausted, but moves his heavy form to reciprocate Hiccup’s gentle embrace, sharing body warm and smelling the scent of after-sex bliss in him. Jack rubs his tired hand against Hiccup’s obvious hardness, and a tattooed hand catches it and repositions it between their chests in a silent negation.

The white haired boy moves his lips against Hiccup’s and kisses him, tasting himself on his tongue and humming appreciatively. He’ll more than probably feel really ashamed about the past few minutes tomorrow, but right now, huddled in his boyfriend’s arms while he nuzzles his neck lovingly and his orgasm is making him sleepy, he can’t bring himself to care.

"I’ll take you home tomorrow morning."

He nods lazily at the sound, and he wants to tell Hiccup that he loves him at that moment, but he’s asleep before the words slip from his tongue.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I don't have any excuses except for not having real clue about how to put this into words, so sorry! Here you have some angst to hate me a little bit more than what you do already.
> 
> Also, we're coming closer to the end of this story! So please comment your thoughts on it, I'd love to hear about you!
> 
> Thank you folks!
> 
> \- Caliope.

When Jack wakes up the next morning, the first thing he sees is a freckled mouth, lips parted, breathing quietly against his forehead.

And he decides that he wants to wake up like this everyday for the rest of his life.

He doesn't remember falling sleep snuggled over Hiccup's chest last night, or taking his jumper off, but he does remember their... activities prior to that, and he can't help the blush that spreads over his cheeks or the dope smile that tugs at the corners of his pale mouth. His eyes roam upwards over his boyfriend's features, from short stubble to long dark lashes, to a slightly furrowed brow, and he lifts one of his hands carefully to soften it with a fingertip.

He gasps quietly when a sudden peck is pressed against his lips. Hiccup is visibly struggling to keep a sleepy expression, eyes shut and all, but Jack can notice his lashes moving and his eyelids scrunching a little. He smiles amusedly and whispers mere centimeters away from his mouth. "I know you are awake, you silly."

"That's not true", the tattooed boy's grin spreads wider and Jack snorts at the idiocy of it all, "I'm sure I must be dreaming."

"How so?"

Jack nips at his nose playfully and finally a green eye creaks open a little, its owner sighing a content hum. "Because if I'm not dreaming, how's it possible that such a precious thing like you is waking up with me?"

"Uh-m..." The younger teen looks astounded at him, blush growing deeper, and he hides his embarrassment in the crook of his boyfriend's neck. "That's not fair, why do you always have to say those things?"

Hiccup laughs quietly and moves their bodies until they're on their sides facing each other, effectively separating Jack's face from his skin. A tattooed hand moves to soft white strands, tucking some behind one of the pale boy's ears, and he kisses his little pout away tenderly. He brings them closer again, and Jack instantly nuzzles his collarbone as Hiccup presses little pecks over his forehead and ears.

The older teen sighs again, blowing joy to his lungs with each deep inhalation, and the other boy copies his gesture. They stay still in each other arms for a bit, lazily enjoying their body warm and company. Soon enough, though, a freckled finger lifts Jack's chin up and he's received by a pair of fuller lips. Hiccup cups his cheek with one of his hands as their mouths meet and caresses the shell of his ear with a thumb, tickling him just enough to make him open his cavity for Hiccup's tongue to sneak in and send goosebumps all over Jack's skin. They kiss heatedly but at the same time deliberately slowly for a few moments, and Hiccup lets him go with a final bite to his lower lip when Jack's breath starts to falter. "How are you feeling?"

Jack bites his lower lip unsurely at the rather intimate question, because he oddly knows he isn't referring to that last kiss, but when Hiccup moves a rough hand to graze over his hip under his t-shirt he simply shivers in silent pleasure and looks into his viridian eyes. Against the morning sun that filters through the window's curtains they shine impossibly bright, and they look peaceful. He relaxes in their embrace once more and slightly closes his own, talking in a mumble. "I feel really good. It was... amazing. Really." He studies Hiccup's open expression for a moment before adding shyly, "though I would have liked to... You know... Make you feel good as well. I was very selfish."

Hiccup clicks his tongue at those words. "Okay, let's clear something up here frostbite", Jack attempts to interrupt him, but Hiccup puts a finger on his lips and smiles before continuing, voice gentle and slow, "I love making you feel good. It's fine if you want to reciprocate whatever I do to you, but that doesn't mean you have to feel pressured to do so. When I please you it's because I want to, not because I'm expecting something back from you, and you don't owe me a thing." He laughs at Jack's mortified face and ruffles his hair lovingly. "So, you wasn't selfish at all. Understood?"

"Yeah", his usual pale and cold cheeks are burning at this point, but he smiles timidly anyways. His heart flutters upon hearing his words, and he can't believe how lucky he is. He has never felt this safe before, and he's so grateful, and he swears his ribcage is going to break under the force of his hard beating. "Thank you. I-"

 

Jack stops in his tracks, remembering his thought from last night, panicking.

He shuts up and hides himself in Hiccup's chest, which makes the older boy grin fondly, unaware of the change in his mood. "It's fine. Do you want to go home now?"

Jack simply nods, not trusting his voice. When his boyfriend releases him to change his clothes he turns to look at the window, eyes watery and goosebumps all over his body, but not from pleasure. He curses himself in his mind and pouts anguished.

He's _deeply in love_. And he's _fucking scared_.

*

After Hiccup left him at his house and he had an unnecessary and bad-timed 'talk' with North, Jack went upstairs to his bedroom and closed the door.

Despite his father's efforts, he didn't have lunch or dinner that Saturday, and he didn't answered his boyfriend's texts or calls either, except for putting him at ease with lame excuses about having to study.

Well, that at least was true: finals started the following week, and he'd need to catch up with his books soon, but he wasn't looking forward to it.

Days passed agonizingly slowly for him between notes and cups of coffee to cover his lack of sleep. Keeping his usual high grades while trying not to cry each single time he thought about his boyfriend was a tough job, but he was —poorly— managing to do it, though not without paying a price for it. His teachers kept questioning him about his rather sad behavior after handing his exams and papers; and North's worry was starting to turn into anger at his self-destructive attitude.

Jack exhales shakily at his reflection on the mirror. The bags under his eyes grow darker and more prominent every time he looks at them, and his pale skin seems ashy. He looks positively sick, dirty white hair falling over his constantly furrowed brow, and he can't bring himself to care about it as he abuses his chapped lips with his teeth and tongue.

His phone vibrates in his jeans' pocket and he takes it, opening the new text.

**I know ya busy w/ finals show pony, but ya work s piling up, just sayin. Ya better bring ya pale butt here tomorrow.**

**Also, ya bf s bein a kicked puppy. Wathev he did, just forgive him. Hes a good guy.**

Jack reads Aster's words again and again. He doesn't know what to reply, so he just presses the buttons with numb fingers and writes a weak answer.

 _Sorry, I need a few days._ ****

He sighs, feeling miserable. It's Thursday, his fifth day without seeing Hiccup and fourth day missing work at the studio, and he feels tempted to actually go this evening.

He misses him so much his chest hurts and his breathing itches at the thought. His mind usually tortures him when he finally collapses in his bed after too many sleepless hours, and he dreams about his lips on his mouth, and his freckled cheeks moving upwards when he smiles, and the ink that stains his hands, and his beautiful eyes.

His eyes are the worst, because Jack has learnt to distinguish the dozens of different hues in which they change depending on the light, and his own always fill with tears when he sees something green, like the grass on the front of his house, or one of his favorite jumpers, or the vitamins his father bought for him two days ago, or those stupid posters covering the high-school's walls announcing the prom's dance next week...

A single drop rolls down the corner of his eyelid and he sniffs quietly, naked feet trembling on the cold tile floor.

*

Hiccup stares expectantly at Aster, and the older man grimaces an apologetic face. "Sorry, mate."

The freckled male just shakes his head slightly, his previous hopeful smile falling apart completely as he sits at his post and returns to his work.

Aster rubs his eyes in a tired gesture, completely frustrated with himself. He's not good with his own feelings (it took him eight embarrassing months before he could even ask Tooth on a date, for God's sake), less say with other people's ones, and he doesn't know how to help his coworker.

Not that Hiccup knows it himself, either. Which is a silly thought, because Aster is sure that if the freckled male knew how to fix whatever happened with the nerd he would have already done it, and he wouldn't be almost moping the studio's floor with his poor smitten heart.

Maybe knowing the details of the 'problem', he could be more helpful. Just maybe.

So the taller man moves to the fridge and takes two beers, offering it to Hiccup —or more accurately, shoving it in his hand— and sitting on his stool facing him. After a few gulps and minutes or uncomfortable silence, he clears his throat. "So, what happened exactly between ya and the little shit?"

Hiccup glares at him for a second at the addressing, but he finally rubs it off with a shrug and takes a sip before speaking. "I don't really know it myself, honestly", he peels the paper label glued to the bottle absentmindedly just to not having to look at the other man, "we slept together at my place and-"

"Wow, wait there mate, ya 'slept together'? Like, ya _fucked_?"

"I knew talking about this with you would be a bad idea", Hiccup shakes his head, but a genuine tiny smile pulls at his lips at his coworker's astounded expression. "We didn't fucked", —he wasn't willing to tell Aster that he gave Jack head, so he chooses his words carefully—, "but we did other things. And the next morning everything was alright, you know? I took him to his house and when I left everything was normal."

Aster scratches his temple and takes a gulp of his beer. "That's weird, then... Do ya think he argued with his old man or something?"

Hiccup snorts and shakes his head negatively. The beverage tastes sourer than usual. "North called me on Tuesday, demanding an explanation. He thought we had a fight and broke up or something like that. The poor man is as clueless as me."

"Then ya should go and talk to him, face to face. He has had enough time to think of whatever was biting at him." The freckled boy looks how the taller man moves to throw away his empty bottle and later comes back, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing there in a comforting gesture. "Chin up, mate."

"Thank you." Hiccup smiles tiredly and stands up as well. He can't actually follow his advice since he doesn't know how Jack would react to it, but he greatly appreciates Aster's obvious efforts to cheer him up. "You are a friend."

The other man huffs, flattered. "Don't thank me; your sad puppy eyes make me wanna throw up."

*

It's Friday night and Jack is too focused on picking at his dinner to actually eat or notice North studying him closely. The larger man cuts his meat with unnecessary force to at least fill the tense air of the kitchen with some kind of sound, and when Jack doesn't even seem to hear him he hums in his throat.

"Jack", he calls over a mouthful, without response from the boy, and he tries again leaving his fork and knife at his sides. "Son", a pair of blue eyes much like his own address him slightly, and North smiles gently, "you haven't touched the mashed potatoes. Don't you like them today? They're your favorite."

"I'm not hungry." The teen looks guiltily at his father when the man sighs at his words, worrying his lip under his teeth. He doesn't want to make him sad, too. "Umm, you know, I was distracted and they chilled? They're fine, I'll just heat them up a bit."

North smiles, pleased with his answer, and before Jack can even stand up he's putting the plate in the microwave and bringing it back to the table a moment later. The boy smiles as well, although a little vaguely, and he takes a tiny mouthful of his food while his father watches him happily.

However, when the mashed potatoes's quantity has lowered just enough to be acceptable, he pushes the plate towards the center of the table and stands up, ready to go back to his room.

"Son, we have to talk." He's putting foot on the first step of the stairs when his father calls him, so he simply turns in the spot and looks blankly at him. North, on the other hand, moves to hug his son —and in other situation Jack would laugh, because even with the added height of the step under him his face barely reaches his father's shoulder—, and the smaller male stays silent, but doesn't fight the affectionate gesture. "I don't know what's going on, but I'd dare say it has something to do with Hiccup." Jack moves uncomfortably at the statement, and the larger man holds him there without effort. "Everything will be okay, Jack. I'm sure that boy cares a lot for you."

Jack doesn't know when he started crying against his father's shirt. He can't stop the aching in his heart, and he finally sobs defeatedly as North embraces him and rubs his back soothingly. He tries to explain to him in a babbling mess that he is _sure_ about how much _Hiccup cares_ for him, but the problem is that he is _in love_ with the older boy, so in love he swears his body might explode when he looks at him... And _he is terrified of Hiccup not loving him back because it's so soon. It's so soon that he's sure the magnitude of his feelings is unhealthy, and when he almost told Hiccup those three words he cowered because he played the scenario in his head and he could actually picture himself as this clingy stupid teenager whose love isn't returned_ , but his father doesn't understand his speech, and the teen is too exhausted to even notice he's dozing off on North's chest.

The bulky man lifts him up easily and takes him to his bedroom, laying him on the bed and tucking him in like when he was much younger and didn't have a single worry or cause to be anxious about... And North makes his mind, taking his son's phone and searching through the contacts' list. He presses the green icon next to Hiccup's number as he closes Jack's door, hoping it isn't too late and the other boy is still awake.

An incredulous and breathless " _Jack_?" is panted at the other end of the line, and North smiles fondly at nothing in particular.

The older man doesn't know, but Hiccup's heart is beating in his chest so hard he's afraid of not being able to hear the other person's voice under the deafening sound in his ears, and his usually steady hand trembles against the paper of his most treasured sketchbook, the one in which he has doodled Jack in every possible posture his mind can think of.

He puts his pencil down and waits expectantly, his sanity hanging by a thread.

"Hiccup, I'm North. You should come over tomorrow and have breakfast with us. I'll make pancakes. He's not feeling that well lately. I suppose you aren't, either."

The freckled teen has to take a deep breath to calm his erratic beating. He wants to cry, due to the disappointment of not being Jack's voice on the other side or the possibility of seeing him after a week, he doesn't know.

He gulps his nerves down, taking courage between slow inhalations and exhalations. "North, I don't think that's a good idea... Why are you doing this?"

"Because I love my son and I want to see him happy."

Hiccup does so, too. And that's why he says, "Okay. I'll be there."


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have some angst. I know you love that.

Hiccup comes out of the shower feeling as dizzy as when he climbed on it. Tired feet drag his body from the cold white tile floor to the warm carpet of his bedroom, finally sitting on his bed and combing wet strands of auburn hair with his fingers.

He doesn’t feel like drying himself off, so he puts his heavy head in his hands and these between his knees, waiting for the drops covering his freckled and tattooed skin to evaporate slowly, creating goosebumps all over his body.

He didn’t sleep at all last night. After North’s call, he spent his time sketching on his notebooks, classical music deafening his thoughts through a pair of earphones. Classical music always helped him to not think about his problems; it usually was much more emotional than other genres, and the absence of lyrics was a plus. Classical music was made for the heart and the soul, not the head and the mind, and in moments like those of last night he was grateful for that.

Hiccup didn’t know what to expect of this morning, being honest. If he wasn’t this heartbroken he would scoff at the thought of his boyfriend’s father — _if he could still define Jack as ‘his boyfriend’_ — calling him in the middle of the night so they could make up. The problem was that Hiccup didn’t know over what exactly they had to make up about. That was his main question, and the one he still haven’t found answer to.

He wasn’t exactly angry at the younger boy for his treatment, more like plainly and devastatingly hurt. For every time Jack didn’t picked up his phone and replied to his messages with lame excuses and monosyllables, Hiccup’s chest would tighten a bit more. And that was when the white-haired teen still talked to him. That situation continued until Wednesday, give or take, when Jack decided to completely ignore him and make of Hiccup’s life a living Hell in which the tattooed man would worry sick about the other’s welfare. ‘ _This isn’t fair_ ’ was a thought that invaded his mind too often as tears filled his eyes, although he didn’t cry a single time. He could at least be proud of that.

A sniff against his left knee and a low whine distract him momentarily of his sadness, his full attention turning instead to the black labrador looking almost sheepishly at him.

“Hey bud, what’s up?” He asks quietly and the dog answers him by flattening his ears against his skull and whining again, leaning his head on Hiccup’s knee for his owner to pet him. “It’s okay Toothless, I’m just a bit tired”, he lies, but the dog whines again in reprimand, butting his wet nose against Hiccup’s thigh and staring directly at him with green puppy eyes. The teen bites his lip, the tiniest of smiles pulling at the corners of his mouth. “It’s okay Toothless, now I’m feeling much better”, he scratches the dog’s ears and presses a kiss to the top of his head, making the labrador finally release his knee and greet him with a goofy smile, which Hiccup reciprocates with a laugh. The owner brings their foreheads together and closes his eyes, a wave of calm washing over his body. Hiccup scrunches his nose in disgust when Toothless licks his nose playfully, but stays still anyway. “You always cheer me up. Thank you bud.”

Hiccup finally stands up, drying the last drops off his skin with the towel that hugged his waist, and moving to his wardrobe to put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Lacing his boots and taking his phone and keys he goes downstairs, waving goodbye to Toothless before putting on his helmet, climb on his bike and light the engine, leaving the street.

He arrives at Jack’s house  in record time.

*

Jack wakes up to the sound of clattering pans coming from the kitchen, and the groggy teen covers his pounding head with his sheets. He doesn’t really remember how he made it to his bed last night until he unconsciously licks salty lips, the realization hitting him full force, and he simply groans miserably as memories flow slowly to his less and less sleepy mind.

He’d probably be embarrassed if he didn’t feel this hollow. He looks slowly to the tickling clock on his nightstand, the numbers glowing green in the complete darkness of his room, and his eyes fill with tears without him noticing. He looks at the date on it absentmindedly — _it’s Saturday; a week ago he was waking up in Hiccup’s arms and feeling the happiest person in the world, and everything was going fine, and his life was wonderful until he just fucked everything up_ —, wetting his pillow case and realizing that he doesn’t really care about being heard anymore.

During the previous days Jack mastered the art of crying silently, but his limbs ache too much and his mind is too drained to try and be polite right now, so he lets the tears run down his cheeks freely, taking big gulps of air in the form of bubbles as his breathing starts to become erratic to the point that his ribcage hurt with each exhalation and inhalation of burning oxygen. He kicks the bedsheets out of the bed and sits up,  trying to breathe normally and finding out that he can’t with the the pressure of his sobs ripping through his chest. He hears the wheezing sound of his cries in his ears, and it feels like they aren’t his own; like he’s seeing himself from out of his body. Jack finally panics, forcing his legs to go search for his father, but he falls to the ground with a hard blow on his ribs and temple. He’s going to suffocate.

He hears loud steps on the stairs as he tries to even his heartbeat, a pair of hands too small to be the ones of his father lifting him and hugging his body carefully as they sit down on his bed, the stranger cradling him back and forth in his lap. Jack sniffs on whatever skin he can find — _a neck? A collarbone?_ — and it smells wonderfully familiar, the scent and the calming movements taking him back to reality slowly. He hears a shushing noise and quiet words, and he can’t tell whose voices these are, but he opens his eyes — _when had he closed them?_ — and with the corridor’s light that enters through the open door he makes out the silhouette of his father under its frame, and then the inked patterns of one of Hiccup’s freckled hands holding him in place tenderly.

Jack doesn’t say a thing. He’s to ashamed to do so, but at the same time too glad of whatever this means. He doesn’t understand why Hiccup is in his house, or why he is in his room taking care of a stupid mess like him, but he doesn’t have to think about it too much to comprehend that he couldn’t ever let go of that body around him, even if he wanted to.

It takes a little for the sound to finally sink in through the fog that plagues his mind, but recognition finally shines in his eyes, although weakly, as he tries to decipher the words Hiccup is saying. “Should we take him to the hospital?”

North seems to agree, but Jack can’t be totally sure as his numb fingers take a hold for dear life on the other teen’s shirt, the white-haired boy doing his best to shake his head negatively. He can’t speak with his mouth dry and his throat sore as they are. He mouthes ‘ _water_ ’ almost indistinctly, the word coming out like a croak, but his father seems to understand his request and disappears of the room in a heartbeat, going to the kitchen.

Hiccup’s hand moves to his frail neck, searching for his pulse point and placing two fingers there, and they send a shiver of pure pleasure directly to Jack’s spine. He receives a gasp in return, concern knitting his brow further at the gesture. Thinking he has hurt the boy in some way, Hiccup lifts Jack from his lap delicately with the intention of laying him on the bed, but Jack panics again and hugs his shoulders in a death grip, effectively preventing Hiccup from releasing him. Green eyes close with a trembling sigh, bringing Jack back to the original position, and the boy kisses a freckled collarbone in thanks. Hiccup is the one who gasps now, the apologetic tinge of Jack’s lips on his skin not escaping his noticing.  

He wants to say so many things, and he wants to say them all at the same time, but his mouth stays shut. It finds Jack’s temple a presses a kiss there, and Hiccup can feel how they boy’s body relaxes under his touch, how his breathing comes less erratic and more firm, how his limbs seem to melt against his own. Despite the difficult of Jack’s gaze being hidden in the crook of his neck, Hiccup looks him in the eyes, and he’s surprised when he finds misery filling them. He arrived at the Frost’s house with the certainty that Jack hated him, or at least that he didn’t want to do anything with him. Now, with the pale boy’s nails caressing his nape, and with his lips grazing his freckled skin, he doesn’t know what to think. He’s not sure of the only thing he was positive about anymore.  

Hiccup has to ask Jack about whatever this means, he needs to ask him, but North reappears at the bedroom’s door, glass of water in hand, and he simply stays still. Jack drinks it in with tiny sips, freckled hands moving on his own accord to rest on his back, one helping him with leverage and the other rubbing circling motions on the muscles there. While Jack is distracted, North directs an intently look at him, and Hiccup doesn’t really understand the emotions behind it. “Jack”, the teen looks at his father over the brim of the glass, still sipping it, “I have to talk with Hiccup for a moment.”

“I think I should go, North, this wasn’t a good idea”, Hiccup replies firmly, taking the glass from Jack’s hands and using his momentary daze to finally put him on the bed.

“Hiccup, wait”, Jack croaks urgently, pale hands holding him by his t-shirt, and Hiccup could free his clothes off his fingers easily, but the white-haired boy has said his name for the first time in a week, and the sound makes Hiccup’s heartbeat flutter. “Dad, can you leave us alone for a minute?”

North seems dubious at first, though his bulking figure retreats to the door, closing it behind him and going downstairs to the kitchen. Darkness engulfs them, the only light coming from the open creaks of the bedroom’s blinds and Jack’s alarm clock. Hiccup stays silent as his eyes get used to the lack of light, waiting patiently for Jack to say whatever he wants. As the situation extends for  five more minutes, Hiccup turns in the spot to leave with a disappointed sigh when Jack’s crying voice freezes him in place.

“Don’t go, _please_ ,” he sniffs sadly, fat tears running down his cheeks again, although his breathing is evener now. “Stay here with me.” Hiccup looks at him by the brim of his shoulder, and he says nothing, but he doesn’t have to: the incredulity of his features is enough to break Jack’s heart in a thousand pieces, and the teen flinches when Hiccup shakes his head in anger, two tattooed fingers going upwards to hold the bridge of his nose. He’s frustrated, and frankly exasperated with Jack’s confusing attitude, even if the picture of the weeping boy tightens his chest painfully.. He wants to scream at him, but he can’t do that; not just because North is in the room, but because he knows Jack couldn’t bear it now. He could have another attack, and he had already scared them enough for the day, though that didn’t mean he was going to stay. Hiccup couldn’t stay and Jack seemed to know this, because he tries to convince him again, voice pleading and apologetic. “I know I have been a jerk this last week, but if you stay I’ll explain everything. Please. I lo-“

“ _You love me_ , Jack? _That’s_ what you were going to say? Because when you love someone you _don’t hurt_ them deliberately. In fact, that’s exactly the last thing you do when you love someone. And you’ve _hurt me_. Do you know how many times I look at my phone after sending you a text, waiting for you to answer it? Or how many times I stayed awake these past nights, because I couldn’t stop thinking about you? How many times I have wondered what I did wrong for you to suddenly hate me like that? How worried I was? I thought so many things…” Hiccup snaps, head shaking disbelievingly and voice tight with anger, tears prickling at the corner of his eyes. He falls shut, not trusting his voice anymore. He thought of how Jack maybe realized he was just a stupid crippled boy, his most obscured fears making him hate himself every time he saw the stump at the end of his left leg. “You don’t love me, Jack.”

“ _Please_ , let me explain”, he pleads, a sob ripping through his chest much like Hiccup’s words. He knows the older boy is completely right, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. “I know I don’t deserve it, but I need to explain everything to you. I’m so sorry, Hic, please, just… Please. Sit down and listen to me. If after what I have to tell you you want to leave and don’t talk to me ever again I’ll understand, but please, let me explain myself…”

Hiccup’s cold eyes pierce Jack’s wet own, but the younger boy is not retreating, not this time. And Hiccup knows that he doesn’t owe him a thing, and his pride is screaming him to move to the door and never look back, but the sincerity of Jack’s baby blue eyes pulls at his heart with an undeniable force…

Hiccup turns and sits on the bed without a word, the mattress sinking under his weight, and Jack debates himself between feeling grateful for it or hiding under the covers. Green orbs bore into his skull, waiting for him to say something. Jack bites his lip unconsciously.

A tattooed finger grazes over his bottom lip, and the pale boy’s breath catches in his throat. He looks at Hiccup confusedly, his treacherous heart fluttering in his ribcage at the gentle touch, and the other male looks back at him through his lashes almost predatory-like. “You’re always biting your lip”, he explains matter-of-factly.

Jack wants to kiss him. He wants to kiss him so much it’s almost painful, and the possibility of not being able to do so ever again after his confession floats in the air between them with every exhalation. But Jack has to be brave.

“When we met each other, you didn’t wanted to make any move on me because I was too young, and I didn’t understand your reasons at the time. I…”, he clears his throat, unsure of how to put his feelings into words. He takes a deep breath and squares his shoulders. Jack looks at Hiccup intently. “I had a lot of time to think about us, this past week. And I comprehended that I wasn’t young because of my age, but because of my actions. When you acted like a man, I acted like a child”, Hiccup tries to interrupt him, but Jack shakes his head firmly, “please, let me finish. Last week at your house I was incredibly happy. I was the _happiest_ I had _ever_ been. And it was because of you —please, don’t you ever think again that any of it was your fault, because it wasn’t—. But then I _thought_ …”

Jack averts his eyes abruptly, and Hiccup moves closer to him on the bed, breaths almost mingling together. “What?”, he whispers.

And it’s now or never, both of them know that. Because if Jack stops talking know, Hiccup will never trust him again, and he’ll disappear through his bedroom door even if that means they’ll both be heartbroken forever.

So Jack keeps talking.

“I thought”, he mumbles under his breath, “of how _lucky_ I was for _having_ you. Of how much I _loved_ you. B-but, it seemed too soon, and I panicked. Because I could picture you not returning those feelings with the same _intensity_  I felt them, and I was so _terrified_. And I’m so sorry, b-because I thought those feelings would rub off after putting some distance between us… But I was wrong, you know? Because I still love you the same– no, now I love you more. And I know I fucked everything up, and I understand if you want to leave and never look at me again, because it’s just like you said earlier. _Why would you hurt the one you love?_ ”

Jack can’t see Hiccup’s expression as his eyes fill with tears, but he can hear him as he says “ _Snowflake_ , you’re _so stupid_.”

And Jack can feel the distance between them being closed in a beat, and he can feel Hiccup’s warm lips pressing violently against his as he sobs.

It didn’t really take a kiss for the pale teen to realize how much he missed the other boy, but it took a lot of them for him to understand how much Hiccup loved him back.

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day and happy *late* Galentine's Day y'all! This took longer than I expected,oh well. I hope you have a great day and that you pamper yourself a lot!
> 
> \- Caliope.

Hiccup’s lips are rough against Jack’s, and they make his skin feverish with the pressure the older teen applies on them, his mouth like hot steel marking trails of kisses down a much paler jaw and neck as Jack gasps under his touch.

He listens absentmindedly to Hiccup’s chanting, a myriad of _I’ve missed you so much, so so so much_ and _You feel so good_ and _You smell so nice_ and _I love you too, I love you too_ falling from his parted mouth, and Jack feels himself shiver violently at the words, because Hiccup pronounces them so reverently it hurts, and Jack doesn’t deserve them. He forces freckled cheeks upwards and shoves a hungry tongue on the brunet’s mouth, nipping and bruising, not wanting to hear anything more. He doesn’t need to hear anything more.

_Darling you’re with me, always around me (only love, only love),_

_darling I feel you under my body (only love, only love)._

_Give me shelter, or show my heart (only love, only love),_

_watch me fall apart, watch me fall apart (only love, only love)._

_And I’ll be yours to keep._

Their sanity is hanging by a threat, Jack’s tears long dry and Hiccup’s anger long forgotten, and Jack tries to bury his moans deep in his lover’s clavicle as Hiccup hovers deliciously close over him, taking his breath away with every kiss and making his loins coil in pleasure at his ministrations. Jack’s trembling hands turn from grasping the green-eyed boy’s shirt to scrabbling blunt nails on the expanse of a freckled back, and the younger teen studies in fascination how Hiccup’s gaze loses focus for a moment and the fists at his head’s sides grip the bedsheets so hard tattooed knuckles turn white. Hiccup kisses him urgently again, Jack’s baby blues fluttering when he rubs their erections together, and the sudden whimper that rips through him is thankfully devoured by Hiccup’s tongue.

However, the sweet friction against his navel goes away as fast as it came, and Jack feels himself like crying again. Jack hasn’t forgotten that his father is downstairs, and it seems that Hiccup hasn’t either. Hiccup nuzzles his neck tenderly while he tries to even his frantic breathing, fiery kisses becoming  purposely languid and soft on Jack’s flushed and bitten lips, the blood flooding in their direction making them tingle under the thin flesh.

_Darling I feel you under my body,_

_darling you’re with me forever and always._

_Give me shelter, or show me heart_

_and watch me fall apart, watch me fall apart._

__

They lay together on Jack’s bed, just holding onto each other, reassuring their proximity, feeling happier and more at ease than ever. He wants to crawl under his skin and sleep there forever. Hiccup combs dextrous fingers through silky white locks and Jack sighs contentedly in his warm arms, curling against the older’s male side and looking upwards at him.

Then Jack’s stomach protests weakly. Hiccup chuckles low in his throat while the younger teen hides his bashfulness in the crook of his freckled neck. Jack shudders when one of Hiccup’s palms grazes over his stomach, oblivious to the frown in his face.

“You’ve lost weight”, he states seriously, and Jack knows it’s stupid to try and deny it. Instead, he squirms in Hiccups arms to face him, although rather anxious about his reply.

“I wasn’t feeling like eating much these past few days… But I feel better now”. Jack had promised himself to act more maturely from now on, and lying to avoid his problems wasn’t the way to do it.

“Let’s go to the kitchen, then. Your father was making pancakes before we came in.” Hiccup’s furrowed brow softens at Jack’s words, his lips moving down to press an affectionate kiss on his temple. “You’ll need to make up for this week if you want your suit to fit you for the dance. ”

“How do you know about the dance?” Jack mumbles, pearly white teeth abusing his bottom lip.

Hiccup smirks at him, crooked teeth flashing mischievously for only him to see. “I have my ways”, he purrs smugly, and a warm feeling stirs in the younger’s boy belly without his consent.

(In fact, the tattooed man had seen the dozens of signs that the dance committee of Jack’s high-school had wrapped the city with —and that included the studio’s door—, but the paler boy didn’t have to know that.)

“We’re going to the dance, then?” Jack stutters over his own excitement, cheeks flushed with the possibility of seeing Hiccup in a nicely-cut suit.  Then, a thought hits his mind, and he looks at the sitting form of the other teen on the bed, babbling embarrassedly. “Does that mean that we good? Like, are we still..?”

The older teen can’t help the smile that pulls at the corners of his mouth, his eyes darting for just a second to the pendant hanging by the leather cord around Jack’s wrist. “Yes, snowflake. We’re good. I love you.”

“I love you too. A lot.” Jack smiles timidly, his blush permanent at this point, and Hiccup laces their fingers together. Their hands stay like that as the pale boy eats his breakfast under the appreciative gaze of a very relieved North. Lunchtime finds them tangled on Jack’s bed once more, lazily taking in the other’s scent and caressing whatever skin they can find, sunlight washing over them.

*

Jack feels like he is floating on a bubble of pure and utter happiness.

Hiccup presses another delicate kiss to his ear and the younger teen giggles under his breath, the line on the paper not coming as steady as he would have wanted with his trembling hands gripping the pencil. He’ll have to clean it and repeat the action, but he can’t bring himself to care.

Jack erases his mistake and starts again, only for his boyfriend to sneak a tattooed hand under his oversized sweater and tickling his ribs with a butterfly touch that has the poor boy shuddering in record time. He turns in his stool to glare at him— although without much success, if Hiccup’s crooked smile is something to tell by—, and hook his thin arms around his freckled neck, kissing him shortly before–

“Oi ya two, I don’t pay ya to make out!” Aster’s voice chimes in breaking the mood, and Hiccup huffs actually annoyed with his coworker while Jack simply hides his face in his boyfriend’s t-shirt. Since the two boys had settled things down they were more cuddly than ever, and it was the fifth time he has had to scold the clingy pair for getting to affectionate in the middle of the studio only that evening. Both the Aussie and the freckled boy were really frustrated at this point, but due to different reasons. If Aster didn’t know them better he’d actually think they were fucking each other’s brains silly like two bunnies in heat… which he would have preferred, anyway. Maybe that way he wouldn’t be about to die of sugar poisoning. “Haddock, could ya please keep your hands away from the kiddo for just a few hours? Or do ya wanna close the shop tonight?”

Hiccup huffs a clenched “Fine” under his breath and goes back to his post, trying to concentrate on his latest client’s request. But then he looks in Jack’s direction not too long after, taking in the adorably boy just a few steps away from him, messy white hair falling over his glasses and scrunched nose,  his pinkish tongue peeking through his teeth. Hiccup has a lot of self-control, but not that much, and he’s moving closer to his boyfriend before he can even think about it.

The older teen takes Jack’s cheeks in his hands and brings their mouths together in a swift movement, licking the younger’s bottom lip and relishing in the immediate obligation of Jack’s mouth opening just enough for Hiccup’s tongue to caress his, and he’s so, so sweet–

“Okay, that’s it! Ya two go home right now!” And fairly enough, the pair exits the studio without protest, but Hiccup doesn't have the decency of looking apologetic at his coworker’s reprimand.

*

It’s Saturday afternoon and Jack is sitting in his house’s kitchen, the soft blue bowtie he’s wearing matching his nervous eyes. His feet keep tapping the legs of the stool under him, and he’s physically struggling to not ruffle his hands through his hair and make a mess of the gelled strands he took almost half an hour fixing in the bathroom. He has even put on some cologne, thinking about how it would be nice to doll himself up a little for Hiccup —and hopefully give his confidence a tiny boost—. It was Jack’s last opportunity to attend his high-school’s annual dance, because his high marks made obvious that he’d be graduating that year, and even if on previous occasions he hadn’t really paid any mind to the event this year it seemed important. Besides, he would be with Hiccup, and a little romantic night sounded glorious to Jack’s ears.

The doorbell rings and the little nerd is on his feet in half a breath, running to the door before North can answer it camera-in-hand. He yanks the wood more eagerly than he intended, and for a tiny instant his breath catches in his throat at the sight in front of him: Hiccup’s suit is black much like his own, but his shirt is white where Jack’s is klein blue, and his green bowtie is a shade deeper than his eyes. The punk’s hair is as messy as ever, though Jack can’t help but notice the absence of his usual two braids. Hiccup is trying to loosen his shirt’s collar slightly when Jack greets him, tattooed fingers grazing over his adam’s apple unsuccessfully, and the younger boy feels his face going warm with the desire that coils down his navel at the lopsided and just a bit embarrassed smile that he gifts him with.

“Hey”, he says simply. Jack swears his knees are going weak. Oh damn. “How do I look?”

He intended to imitate his salute, but instead he replies a breathless and blunt “Hot”, realizing too late his slip. He looks much better than he imagined. His boyfriend chuckles and Jack is feeling a bit lightheaded, having forgotten in his bedroom the inhaler that his doctor prescribed him after his attack last week. Hiccup must have noticed this as well, because the older teen moves him closer by the waist and keeps him upright. Jack can smell cologne on his neck and nuzzles there before pressing a timid kiss to his jaw, helping him to finally loosen his collar. A silent ‘thank you’. “What happened to your braids?”

“My mom said they looked weird with the suit”, he shrugs his shoulders carelessly, changing the subject immediately, voice sounding suddenly deeper. “You look good enough to eat”, Hiccup eyes him with an appreciative look, drinking in the flushed cheeks and shiny eyes of the little nerd in his arms. Jack looks positively adorable with his snowy hair gelled backwards and contacts instead of glasses, the fitting cloth of his suit showing a slightly taut frame that his usual oversized sweaters hide effectively. The punk knows he’s going to have a hard time trying to not get frisky with the nerd, but he can’t bring himself to care as he runs his fingers down Jack’s nape and the boy shudders in his arms.

Hiccup closes the distance between them slowly, angling their mouths until he kisses Jack with just a sweet peck of chaste lips, and the younger boy can feel his heart beating madly against his ribcage.

“I love you”, Hiccup murmurs over his lips when they move to breathe, and Jack wants so sigh of contentment.  

“I love you too”, he smiles timidly in response, standing on the tip of his shoes to press a little kiss on Hiccup’s freckled nose.

A ‘click’ and a flash blind them for a moment, and when they turn in the light’s direction in Jack’s porch North is looking at them innocently. “Sorry boys, but Hayden looks so cute! Jackson, do that again!”

Hiccup looks about to die of embarrassment during the whole photo session, still not believing his boyfriend’s father called him ‘cute’, and Jack is enjoying the whole thing too much. The punk bends over the nerd’s shoulder while North is distracted with the camera settings, nipping his earlobe and chuckling amused when Jack’s ears turn red.

North frees them not too long after, and the pair arrives at Jack’s high-school in roughly ten minutes thanks to Hiccup’s bike. The pale boy takes his helmet off and the freckled teen does the same, helping Jack to fix some loose strands of hair before taking his hand and entering the gym hand in hand.

Except for the initial surprise of seeing two boys coming to the dance together and a few whispered comments nobody bothers them, and Jack is grateful for that, although it maybe had something to do with Hiccup looking murderous to anybody that dare to come near them.

Jack spots Rapunzel and Flynn near the punch’s table and drags his boyfriend there, happy of seeing somebody from his school he actually liked. Excited small talk ensues without much difficulty, Hiccup clicking with Flynn almost instantly and discussing about tattoos while Rapunzel makes him dance with her much to their boyfriend’s amusement.

But Jack can’t help the odd sensation that curls unpleasantly on his gut and makes his movements tense from head to toe, and he blames the school population for it. He was still affected by the previous week, the lack of food and sleep and mental health in general messing with him in more ways than one. Hiccup was treating him exceptionally well, showing him tender affection and genuine love in every possible way to help him feel a little better, and Jack's confidence was improving greatly thanks to it… which made him feel even guiltier due to his current paranoid and stupid attitude.

He doesn't want to dance anymore, and Flynn goes to substitute him in favor or keeping his girlfriend happy. Hiccup gives him a concerned look, his relaxed mood going away at Jack’s distressed face and nervous posture. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I'm just a little tired. I need to catch some air”, he knows his false smile doesn't convince his boyfriend, so he tries to add a little shrug of his shoulder. “You just stay here, okay? I'll be back in a minute.”

Before he can turn on his heels and run from the gym Hiccup’s arm finds his waist, and the older boy presses a little peck on his forehead reassuringly. “Don't take too long. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Hiccup watches him go with a frown on his brow and a gulp of punch to prevent a sigh from escaping his lips. He had wanted to go with him, but at the same time he knows he must give Jack space if he wants so to not overwhelm them, his doctor said as much. So he simply stays on his spot, sipping from his cup and watching the younger students dance for a while.

He sees something red approaching him by the corner of his eyes, and Hiccup turns to stare at the girl greeting him. “Hi, are you Jack’s boyfriend?” The punk makes a noncommittal sound, not really interested in engaging in conversation when he's being busy worrying over Jack. “I'm Heather, a friend of his.”

“He has never mentioned you”, and he doesn't intend to be rude, but it's true. He doesn't remember Jack talking about any Heather before, although on the other hand he didn't mentioned Rapunzel or Flynn either. The girl doesn't cower at his obvious gruff response, flashing him an amicable smile instead.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter”, she replies, and suddenly she’s glued to his neck and pressing a forceful kiss on his mouth.

A gasp can be heard not too far away from them, and when Hiccup can shove the girl away from him he watches in horror Jack’s running back disappearing through the gym’s metallic doors.

“Jack!” He tries to follow him, but that girl catches a hold of his arm and Hiccup has to shake her from it. “What the fuck is your problem!?”

Heather looks genuinely scared now, green eyes wide open and with a reason: the boy in front of her seems to be about to murder her, and her confident stance falters in less than a second. “S-sorry, he gave me twenty bucks, he-he sai-d it was just a-a joke–

“What are you talking about!?” The girl falls shut with a squeak when Hiccup demands an explanation with a scream, his fingers gripping her by her shoulders. The entire gym is staring at them at this point, Rapunzel and Flynn at his sides trying to contain him, the teachers coming closer at the commotion. Losing his patience, he shakes her applying a little more force, “what the fuck are you talking about!? Who is he!?

“This guy n-named Dagur? He told-d me you w-where his boyf-friend?”

When Hiccup finally lets her go is because of the shock that shots through his body, and the girl immediately melts in the crowd that has gathered around them, but Hiccup doesn’t have time to chase her. He runs outside the high-school’s gym without any word, leaving his boyfriend’s confused friends behind him, looking for Jack desperately in the parking lot, the boy nowhere to be found.

A little sparkle stands out against the black pavement and Hiccup takes Jack’s snowflake bracelet from the ground, almost completely smashed in his hand from the pressure of a wheel over it. He climbs onto his bike without a second thought, bile rising in his throat  and helmet be dammed, and while he drives he takes his mobile from his jacket’s pocket and calls his father heatedly.

“ _Hiccup? What’s wrong?_ ” Stoick picks the phone at the first ring, being his work’s number, and he stands up from his chair to pace around his police station’s office. Hiccup never calls him at his work’s number.

“Dad, it’s Jack, I know who the assaulter is! He has him!” Hiccup arrives at his house in record time, Valka opening the door with a distressed expression upon hearing his son. “I-I think I know where he is, there’s a cabin next to the east’s edge of the lake, I’m heading there with Toothless right now”, the black labrador barks at the mention of his name, owner and dog going to the garage and climbing onto Valka’s 4x4 without her being able to prevent it.

Stoick is screaming something at him through the phone, but Hiccup is too focused on taking the car out of the garage and leaving his street behind to really understand the words. “ _Son, stop right now and stay with your mother! We’ll take care of this!_ ”

“I can help, I’ll explain you everything dad, but please come as soon as possible! We’re on the way”, and with that Hiccup hangs up the phone, the only sounds surrounding him being Toothless’ nervous panting and the buzzing of another incoming call.

He’s going to kill Dagur.


End file.
